Celestial Premonitions
by Arialis
Summary: On that dark fateful night so long ago, the wrong twin was hailed as The Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter, at 6, runs away from home and gets into an orphanage for fun, making a magical friend in the process. When his friend disappears, Harry runs to Diagon alley where Malfoy finds him and takes him to the dark lord. Voldemort, seeing similarities between them, makes him his heir.
1. The Boy Who Lived

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Harry Potter; he is the property of J.K. Rowling. I do, though, own the plot and a few OCs I'll be introducing later on in the story._

_**~Prologue~**_

It was midnight. The air was buzzing with energy, a warning, perhaps, to the storm that was brewing in the distance. Thunder rumbled in the sky, casting temporary flashes of light into the dark room, which was barely lit up by a number of small candles. If someone there had cared to concentrate, they would have felt a great amount of magic emitting from the house. It was as if magic was tense, waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to come.

A scream of pain pierced the quiet room. "Ahhhh!" The woman with a head full of thick, flaming red hair screamed in agony as the mediwitch urged her to not give up. Beaded sweat had gathered on her fore head as she was straining with the effort needed to finally see her newborn sons for the first time.

"Not much left now! I can see them coming out! Just a little bit more, sweetie!" The mediwitch encouraged enthusiastically.

The black haired man was sitting beside his wife's bed, clutching her hand, supporting her in the only way he could. Whispering words of comfort to her, he squeezed her hand.

"You can do it." He said.

"That's it… There!" the mediwitch exclaimed.

The magic in the room seemed to intensify at that moment, swirling around the two children, hinting that something very important was happening at that moment. It started to concentrate at one point, so much that it was almost tangible. And then suddenly, as if its work had been concluded, it vanished, leaving traces that could have been mistaken for a weak charm's.

The cries of two babies pierced the dark room, and the dark-haired man shone with joy at the sight of his twin sons, pride rushing through him. The elder child resembled his mother more, with her beautiful red hair. However, he had inherited his father's hazel eyes that sparkled prettily by the candle light. The child was crying loudly, as any normal baby was bound to. The younger child, however, was unnaturally quiet. He had taken more after his father, with the classical raven hair typical of the Potter family. But the eyes… The eyes were the most brilliant shade of emerald. Luminous and radiant, they glowed eerily in the dark. The eyes resembled his mother's, but his were more exquisite, more striking, more beautiful, than hers could ever hope to be. It was as if the gods had taken his mother's and improved them before bestowing him with their beauty. It was very obvious they would grow to make a fine, handsome pair of young men.

"Let me carry them." The exhausted woman softly requested.

The man handed both of them over to her and watched her lovingly as she caressed the children in her arms. The mediwitch started packing her things and soon she left through the floo, and they were left alone with their offspring.

"What do you think we should name them?" asked the raven haired man.

"How about Damon for this one?" James motioned to his red-haired offspring.

"Yeah, it… suits him," said Lily. "Then this one will be… Hadrian. Yes, I think I like Hadrian."

The couple laughed happily and smiled affectionately at their sons.

Little did they know what a terrible fate awaited them.

_**xXxXxXxXxXx**_

A man clothed in a black cloak with the hood up walked towards the little house in Godric's Hollow. The night was unnervingly silent, as if the very world itself was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. He walked with lithe, graceful strides towards the door painted in red. Stopping at the door, he took out his wand and blasted it open. A startled cry came out of the house as he walked into it. The only occupants of the house were the two children and a squib caretaker who was a close friend of the Potters. They had been occupied with a meeting held by the order of the phoenix. The dark lord strode upstairs towards the room which he knew his nemesis resided in. As he walked into it, he saw the caretaker standing defiantly in front of the two cribs.

"I won't let you hurt them!" said the woman, a fearful yet determined look in her eyes.

"Stand aside." he spoke with a threatening tone.

The woman didn't reply but the stubborn tick to her jaw was answer enough for him.

"_Avada Kedavra!_" snarled the dark lord furiously, pointing the wand at her with blinding speed. The woman quickly dodged the curse, jumping to the side. But there was nothing she could do, as she had no magic that could help her. She stepped back to the cribs and looked down at the two one year olds she had come to love as dearly as if they were her own. She knew that she no longer had any chance of survival as she heard the dark lord fire another curse at her.

"_Confringo_!" he hissed

"I'm sorry" she whispered to the two angelic children that were woken by the noise, and then she turned to face the dark lord as the curse came zooming her way. She stood strong, her resolve not wavering in the slightest as the curse hit the floor under her. It exploded, sending splinters everywhere. The caretaker stood strong, shielding the children with her body, and winced as many shards pierced her body. But alas, she couldn't prevent all of the shards from passing. One particularly sharp shard with a nail stuck in it struck little Damon potter on his upper arm. The resulting wound was nasty and deep and probably wouldn't heal without a scar. The child started crying loudly, not able to endure the pain he felt.

"_Avada_ _Kedavra_!" he said while pointing his wand at the fallen woman. The woman's mouth formed a perfect "o", and she dropped back, her heart no longer beating.

Lord Voldemort stood in front of the cribs, looking down at the two children who faced him.

He looked at the two babies in front of him and tried to guess who the prophecy spoke of. The red haired child was still crying noisily, as any child was prone to do. But the prophesied child cannot be a normal boy.

_**He can't be the one the prophecy speaks of**__, _thought the man.

He turned to the second crib. He took in the way the baby looked at him. It was eerie, disturbing even. The child didn't blink, didn't move, only stared at the man in front of him, his gaze never wavering, and it seemed to pierce into the man's very soul, or at least what remained of it. It was unnerving, to say the least. The man felt an immense fear that couldn't be explained in words. He ignored the uneasy feeling that gathered in his stomach and pushed aside the warnings his instincts were shouting to him. He was nothing but a child. The child slowly started smiling at him. It wasn't a joyful smile; it wasn't even a confused smile. The child was laughing at him!

He raised his wand, pointing it at the child, and still the child did not stop.

"_Avada Kedavra_." Voldemort cast the killing curse.

The spell, almost the same color as his eyes but not quite, flew towards Harry. However, as it reached him, time seemed to slow. A faint pink barrier showed up, and tried to protect him but to no avail. It blocked most of the spell; however, some of the magic had seeped through and hit the child, who tensed. Then something strange seemed to happen… A thick blanket of magic enveloped him, as if sent by some greater force, fighting off the foreign magic trying to invade his body. In the process, a thin paper cut like wound in the shape of a lightning bolt was inflicted on the small child, scarring him for life with its dark magic. Magic came off him in waves as it tried to save him by healing him and help him by weakening his enemy. The part that was blocked had gathered and rebounded on the dark lord. The man's eyes widened as he tried to move out of the way in time. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't fast enough, and although he had managed to avoid most of the spell, a bit of it still caught his leg, causing him to fall to the floor and thrash in agony, his spirit unable to die due to his horcruxes yet still unable to escape the pain. He felt burning indescribable agony. Noise filled the air as two shouts were heard downstairs. The parents had arrived. Knowing he wouldn't stand a chance in his current condition, the dark lord apparated with one last glance at the child that had managed to survive the killing curse.

The two parents ran into the room, fearing the worst.

What greeted the was the sight of one Damon Potter bawling his eyes out with a nasty wound on his upper arm, and one quiet Hadrian Potter, with a thin scar in the shape of a lightning bolt, never to be noticed until much later, when it was already futile to do so.

That was the day everything changed.


	2. Deviation

**Disclaimer**_: I do not own Harry Potter; he is the property of J.K. Rowling. I do, though, own the plot and a few OCs I'll be introducing later on in the story._

_**A/N:**_

**Sorry for the long wait.**

**Now, this might cause some confusion, so I'll explain it briefly right now. In this chapter, there is a time skip of 5 years, so Harry is currently 6 years old.**

* * *

_**~Deviation~**_

~Time skip (5 years later). 31 July, 1986~

Harry was bored in his own birthday party. People, as usual, had completely forgotten about him. That is, of course, if most of them knew he existed in the first place. Damon's gifts, however, seemed to pile up so much it was almost like a mountain. Harry didn't really care at this point; he was used to it.

Over the past four years, the Potters had gradually shut their son out, focusing completely on Damon and ignoring Harry if he was in the room. They didn't hate him, per se, they just loved Damon more. Sometimes, Lily tried to pay attention to him, but as soon as Damon comes into the room, there's no time for Harry anymore.

So that found Harry here, sitting on his chair, doing nothing. He looked at the crowd formed around Damon, where everybody was laughing warmly and happily, with a little longing in his emerald eyes.

The manor was huge and was filled with many rooms that had different uses. An inside Quidditch pitch, a garden, a room that changed seasons every few hours. He had run about the manor, looking at all the different rooms. Eventually, the loneliness drained the joy out of things.

He turned his curiosity to the family library, where there had been many books about magic. Harry rapidly read his way through the library, when he had nothing better to do. Harry found he could do strange things at a young age, untypical even for a normal magical child.

He could talk to snakes, control animals, and make things happen by thinking hard about it. Harry knew he was exceptionally gifted, as Damon had not any of that even though he had already done accidental magic. He was in a different league; he could probably beat a weak gown wizard with his magic combined with his resourcefulness.

But even though Harry was talented, he didn't like reading all that much. He preferred doing it better than reading about it, but he didn't have an instructor to just show him. So he took to reading a little bit every now and then. Most of the time, he wandered around the house on his own, feeling like a ghost.

After some time passed, the crowd began to thin out as people started to take their leave. Harry barely received two birthday wishes, and one of them was distractedly given from his parents as they prepared for the boy who lived's birthday party.

Harry was now crouching and hugging his knees in a corner, staring at the party with an empty, haunted look in his eyes.

Could they even see him? No one turned to look at him when they passed, no one asked where he was. Was he even there?

He could feel it again, the loneliness that poisoned his mind.

Loneliness could do strange things to you. It took and took until no more was left. And Harry had no more to give.

It twisted your mind, staining it with black and draining you of feeling. In all of those years, no one had cared - and eventually, neither did Harry.

All he felt was now emptiness. Loneliness. And an anger that was unmatched by anybody.

He felt, more than saw, the light being blocked as someone stood over him. He looked up at the figure, feeling a tiny bit surprised. Did someone notice him? Did someone see him?

"Why are you alone?"

Harry saw the carefree, innocent expression on the girl's face as she stared at him with a puzzled glint in her eyes.

_How_ could she be be so happy? How was it even possible?

The idea of happiness was so foreign Harry found it incomprehensible.

Didn't they get tired of being happy all the time?

But he was taking too much time to answer, and he realized the girl had sat down beside him, staring curiously.

"My name is Helen. Who are you?"

Harry stared at her, resentment shooting through him. Why did it come effortlessly to her?

Why couldn't he be happy like her?

Anger washed over him and something in his cold glare scared the girl, who had started to back off, running to her mother.

If happiness didn't come to him, then that was fine. He didn't want it anymore. He didn't need it. It was his dream that when he grew up, that he wouldn't need anybody.

He would be strong. He will endure. He will never again feel so helpless as he did here.

On that day, little Harry Potter made a promise to himself.

A promise that he wouldn't need anyone ever again.

Harry calmly moved out of his chair with his hands in his pocket and headed to the house. Nobody even noticed he was leaving.

Time had taken its toll on him. Harry turned into a jaded, cynical, sarcastic, and cold child

He couldn't care anymore.

Next came anger. It wasn't the normal kind of anger. It was a terrible anger, the one that never really goes away. It was the anger of injustice. He could feel it, coursing through his blood, seeping into his body, pumping from his heart. It builds up and up, making him feel as if he would burst if he didn't do _something_. He had to do something. But he didn't know what. Eventually, the hate was there too, and hate them he did. So he put on a mask; he concealed his rage and endured. He waited and waited.

And he was still waiting. But for what?

Harry opened his room's door. It was a large, spacious room, just as expected from the Potters.

Harry thought it kind of represented him. It was empty, devoid of any personal touch save for a few books here and there. Like him, now that he thought about it. Empty.

He left his room after throwing his robes off, and headed for the Quidditch pitch.

He flew with the training brooms, making loops in the air and enjoying himself.

He loved Quidditch. The rush of adrenaline it gave him, the awareness he felt when he was on a broom, was addicting. After an hour or two of flying, he slowly set his feet on the ground, a healthy flush on his face.

It was back to the stupid Potters.

He walked out of the room and saw that the party was over from the window. He headed towards the dining room, where his family had surely started without him. He opened the door and looked in before he entered.

That was the turning point of Harry Potter's life.

They were all laughing together. The Potters, Weasleys, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black.

Harry stared at them coldly, and then turned his back on the room, going to his chambers.

He was actually contemplating this for a while now.

He was going to run away.

He could use the floo. But to where? He could go to Diagon Alley and rent a room at the leaky cauldron. That'd have to do for now.

Harry stuffed some clothes into the magically enlarged backpack and took out his saved money. The Potters were one of the richest pure-blood families and were not afraid to spend their money on their family. So although Harry wasn't given the time of day, he had always had excess money to use. Both he and Damon were given pouches of galleons every time there was an occasion, and as Harry had nothing to spend it on, he had, in effectiveness, gathered a small fortune.

And as one of the two Potter heirs, he could access his trust fund at Gringotts once he got to Diagon. He could ask the goblins to open a separate account for him and tell them to invest as they see fit. That way, his money would keep growing and he would never run out of galleons.

After Harry finished packing, he ran to the living room, grabbed a pinch of floo powder, and threw it into the fireplace. Harry walked into the fireplace and vanished with a whisper. Never once did he look back.

He had promised himself. He'll need no one.

Never again.

* * *

Harry walked around Diagon Alley, hands behind his neck and ignoring the stares he was getting. He walked calmly to Gringotts, entering it gracefully and purposefully. He stopped in front of a goblin, and waited for the goblin to look up at him. When the goblin didn't, Harry let an angry lash of magic hit the goblin who became visibly startled and Harry stared coldly at him. He looked down at the child calculatingly and with respect. The child was powerful.

"I would like to access my vault." Harry stated, his green eyes boring into the creature in front of him.

"Key?" the goblin inquired.

"I don't have it." Harry said bluntly.

"Then I'm afraid I will have to conduct a security check." The goblin said, looking down at him from his high desk. "Please place your hand on the table."

Harry stood on his toes and put his outstretched palm on the desk in front of him. He felt a prick that drew a drop of blood, and saw his name float in dark green letters above his palm.

"A Potter? Interesting." The goblin said before beckoning another goblin in a tailored suit near. "I think this calls for an exception. Griphook! Take Mr. Potter to Ragnok. I believe they have something to discuss."

"Right this way, Mr. Potter." The goblin walked quickly into a corridor and led Harry through a few turns and into an office.

"Mr. Ragnok was informed of your coming. Please step inside." The goblin said before walking away with his short legs.

Harry put his hands in his pocket before walking inside relaxedly. A short goblin was sitting in front of a desk and he was looking at Harry with a clever smile.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. I have been informed of your appearance. Now, what is it that drives the heir of one of the most influential families in Britain, to come to Gringotts alone?"

Harry lied down on the chair and put his legs over the arm set.

"I ran away from home. I want you to transfer all of my money into another account under a new name. Immediately. Preferably before my parents find out I'm gone." He said as he looked at the goblin sideways. "I also need a ring with wards on it preventing them from locating me. I'm sure you have one or two lying around somewhere. Don't worry, I'll pay you handsomely."

"I see… do you have any plans to invest in anything? Or are you going to spend away your fortune?" The goblin asked with a cynical tone

Harry looked at the goblin and sat upright.

"About that…"

Harry told the goblin to convert all the shares that were part of Harry's trust fund into galleons and buy shares of any promising companies they thought would pay off. He also told him to make sure it was done with the utmost secrecy. There was no need for the Potters to know about his escapade earlier than needed. Harry told him to put the new vault under the name Hadrian Hades.

Ragnok was intimidated by how cold the child's expression was. The child didn't even attempt to fake a smile. He had quickly lost the sarcastic bite in his tone after he saw the glint in Harry's eyes. Making an enemy of this boy would not benefit him.

But the look in them was so empty and cold, and they seemed to suck out all the warmth in the room when you looked at them.

Harry jumped off the chair when he was done heading towards the door. He twisted the knob and turned his head before leaving.

"We wouldn't want word of this to come out, would we?" Harry stared at him expectantly.

"O-of course not, Mr. Potter." The goblin said, sweating.

"May your gold flow."

The goblin stared at the door long after Harry was gone.

"What a monster." He muttered as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "I pity his parents."

* * *

Where to go now? Harry had always wanted to explore the muggle world, see what made them different from wizards. His shoulders felt a bit lighter, now that he was free. He didn't have to sit alone and watch at the sidelines anymore. He will be his own man.

He walked out of Diagon alley and into the muggle world. It was still late afternoon, so he still had a chance to look around a bit.

After a bit of walking, Harry's head hurt at the excess noise and pollution. He stopped in front of a building. Kids were playing in the yard, running around after each other.

Harry stopped for a moment. Years later, he would wonder why he had entered it. Was it a subconscious need for human contact?

Harry ran towards the orphanage, knocking on the door.

A woman wearing a fake smile opened the door, and Harry shot a fake smile at her. It didn't reach his eyes

"Is there something you need, dear?" She said in a sickly sweet fake tone.

Harry didn't care about whatever she thought she could do to him. Harry was powerful, and he knew it. A muggle had nothing on him.

He stared coldly into her eyes and willed her mind to bend.

"Well, you see…"

* * *

He had been led to a medium sized room, small for his standards but better than nothing. As Harry sat on the bed, he wondered why he was doing eyes caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, and the same sight waited for him every time.

Empty, numb, dead green eyes.

The eyes of a monster.

Harry rolled onto his stomach and slept soundly.


	3. Orphanage

It was second month at the orphanage, and things weren't half bad. He could go out whenever he wanted, and he terrorized the kids at the orphanage.

Muggles, he found, were pathetic and disgusting. Greedy and repulsive, they grouped together to assault weaker beings. Sadly, one of them had seen Harry at his first week there and thought he could bully him along with his group of thugs. It didn't go well, to say the least.

Harry had just returned from Diagon Alley, and was carrying his signature backpack with the newly bought books. He would get a wand after he read a few books about it. As he entered the orphanage, Keith and his lackeys blocked the way to his room.

"Where are you going, stupid?" Keith said while laughing.

"You know, you'd better let me go into my room." Harry stated quietly, but his eyes glinted cold and as hard as steel.

"Or what? Are you going to hit us?" He snorted and his lousy minions laughed around him.

Harry slowly lowered his hands from behind his neck and got into a fighting stance.

"Want to try?"

Ten minutes later, five beat up boys were running from the right corridors of the house and into their rooms.

_Idiots_. He looked after them disgustedly.

Harry had noticed that a new boy was in the orphanage, and when listening in on the other kids' conversations with him, found out that the boy was magical. He was going on the fountain of fair fortune, the three witches Asha, Altheda, and Amata, Babbitty Rabbitty and her cackling stump, something about a wizard and a hopping pot, and three brothers who cheated death. Harry, of course, understood, but the other kids looked at him strangely and called him a weirdo.

He was passing by a room when he saw Seth Fyric, the small dark-haired boy with golden eyes, surrounded by Keith and his goons. Harry looked curiously at the child, who was standing with a determined look on his face. Seth used magic to fight off the stupid goons, but his small stature kept him from outright beating the shit out of them like Harry did.

Harry had intervened at that point, driving off the boys with a cold stare.

"Thanks." Seth smiled at him.

"Huh? Yeah." Harry put his hands out of his pockets awkwardly. The boy's smile was so open Harry didn't know how to deal with him at first.

Harry was a manipulative liar who always got his way, and he was used to dealing with stupid people who tried to trick others. So it was kind of weird for him to see someone with such a carefree and happy attitude, honestly trying to befriend him for the sake of it.

Seth had taken to following Harry around since then, insisting on them becoming friends. He had been jubilant when he found out Harry was also a wizard, and Harry insisted on taking him along to Diagon alley to get a wand.

Harry had changed, and he knew he did. He could smile now. He could joke, he could explore, he could have _fun_.

He would never have thought it was possible a year ago. New doors opened for him, and he could only stare in wonder at the world outside the prison he was in.

They were going for a wand now, and Harry found that the boy was just as much of a prodigy as he was; just that he was still a raw gem and needed polishing. They went into Ollivander's while talking about things. When they entered, they looked around for the shop keeper.

He was arranging wands in one of the cases when he heard Harry's approaching footsteps.

He turned around, his silvery eyes glowing eerily in the dark.

"Well, what do we have here?" the man murmured. "Two fine young men."

Harry had heard of Ollivander's strange fascination with interesting costumers. Apparently, he liked a challenge when trying to match a wand to a wizard.

"This will be interesting." He whispered. "Let's start with you, young man."

"Yeah, yeah. Just get it over with." Harry said rudely.

Seth elbowed him with a sheepish smile on his face.

"Don't mind him. He's just bored." Seth said politely.

"Yeah right."

"Harry" Seth whispered pleadingly.

"Well, shall we start?" the old man's eyes twinkled.

He began taking out wands from the shelves, handing Harry one and waiting for the outcome.

"Ebony with Dragon Heartstring, 11 ½ inches." Ollivander said. "Suited to a man who will hold fast to his believes. Well, go on, give it a swing."

Harry waved the wand and a shelf exploded in a part of the shop. He placed it back on the table and put his hands in the air.

"No, no." The man snatched the wand away from the table. "Try this. Cedar with unicorn hair, 10 inches. Suited to loyal and perceptive people with a strong character."

Harry waved it again and rows of boxes fell out of the shelves.

Ollivander snatched the wand away again, muttering excitedly under his breath.

"A tricky costumer, eh? No worries, no worries."

The pile of tried wands grew higher and higher, and with every wrong match Ollivander seemed to get happier.

Ollivander suddenly stopped at a box.

"I wonder… Could it be?" The man turned around to assess him from the dark, his eyes shining like moons.

Seth and Harry looked at each other with a skeptical smile, although Harry's was decisively ruder.

Harry took the offered wand, and a warm feeling engulfed him, and a green shower of sparks flew from his wand's tip, curling in the air and showering Harry.

Harry's eyes widened with amazement at the feeling.

"How curious…. How very curious." The man whispered.

"Holly with phoenix feather, 11 inches. Holly wands usually choose a wizard embarking on a long and dangerous spiritual quest. It is one of the notoriously hardest woods to pair with phoenix feathers. Phoenix's are known for their independency and detachment, making their feathers conflict strangely with Holly wood, which is very volatile. However, in the unusual and rare event the wand finds an ideal owner… Nothing would stand in their way."

"However, that is not the strangest thing here." Ollivander murmured, his eyes glowing. "The phoenix whose feather resides in your core gave another feather – just one other. That feather resides in the wand of the dark lord, and this wand is its brother. He did great things, the dark lord. Terrible, yes – but great."

"I expect great things from you, child." He said as he stared deeply into Harry's eyes.

Harry slipped the wand into his backpack and looked at the man who was trying to match Seth to a wand.

Ollivander procured a wand, placing it in Seth's hands.

"Black walnut with unicorn hair. 12 ½ inches. Very faithful to its owner. Bonds with an honest, self-aware wizard. Well, try it."

Seth hesitantly swung it and a shelf exploded. He placed it back on the table with an awkward laugh.

"Hawthorn with phoenix feather. 8 inches. Adept at curses and healing magic. Their owners always have a complex nature."

Seth gave it a wave and absolutely nothing happened.

"Tricky, tricky…" Ollivander murmured gleefully.

He pulled out another wand from a box.

"Hornbeam with dragon heartstring. 14 inches. Refuses to preform spells for any other than its owner. Quite powerful; suited to a wizard of strong vision."

Seth waved it and the wood underneath him cracked, making him stumble a bit.

"I'll just put it there again." Seth sheepishly placed it inside the box.

Ollivander seemed to be filled with a manic energy, and just like with Harry, grew happier and happier with the paradox presented to him. Wand after wand went into a pile next to Harry's and still the man got happier.

"No worries! We'll find you just the thing!" He exclaimed joyfully.

Seth and Harry exchanged bewildered looks and watched as he bustled around the shelves.

Finally, Ollivander brought out a shiny wand.

"Cedar with dragon heartstring. 13 inches. Its owner is a perceptive and loyal person, strong of character and deadly to cross. They can surprise people who challenge them and make for a frightening adversary; especially if harm is done to loved ones. The owner usually has a great destiny in store." He looked at Seth from behind his spectacles.

The instant Seth's hands touched the wand; a golden light enveloped him, magic gushing out of his body.

"Quite a match, this is. I think we can expect very great things from both of you." His silvery eyes shone as he whispered.

Harry paid 14 galleons and he was off on his way with Seth.

"That was kind of weird, huh?" Seth grinned at him.

"Tell me about it." Harry said with a smirk. "Let's go get ice-cream."

They ran to Fortescue's and ordered two ice-creams and walked back to the orphanage. When they entered the orphanage, Harry and Seth went to their room. Seth and Harry shared a room after they had become fast friends; Harry could keep an eye on Seth, and this way, they could spend more time together.

It was night already, and Harry and Seth got into the large bed.

They were talking under the covers; their feet up in the air but covered with the blanket.

"Say, Harry. Why are you here in the orphanage in the first place?"

"Hehe… I ran away from home." Harry said while grinning.

"Hmm? Why would you do that?"

"I was bored."

"You did that cause you were bored?" Seth laughed a bit. "That's weird, Harry."

"You're one to talk."

"You're still weirder."

Harry jumped on him and tried to pin him to the bed but Seth slipped out and tried to kick his feet from under him. Harry jumped and stood on his hands before flipping over Seth's head and tackling him from behind. Seth turned just in time to catch Harry's legs. They stood there struggling for a while.

"Truce?" Seth asked after a while.

"Yeah." Harry dropped tiredly on the bed. "Let's get some sleep."

"Good night Harry."

"Good night Seth."

* * *

It was that day again.

Every Thursday, they lined up kids so that people who wished to adopt a child could have a look at them. Harry got into line reluctantly, Seth tagging along behind him.

Honestly, this was by far the stupidest part Harry had seen in this muggle orphanage.

Harry and Seth leaned against the wall while couples looked at kids.

"When can we go?" Seth asked him with a yawn.

"In a minute or two. We can just slip away." Harry said.

As Harry and Seth were talking, an elderly gentleman moved towards Seth, the matron trailing behind him.

"There he is. I assume he's the one you're looking for." The matron said with a suspiciously vacant look in her eyes.

"Yes, actually, he's exactly who I was looking for." The gentleman smiled politely at her. "You will forget about him and me."

"I will forget about you and him."

The woman nodded before walking away as if nothing happened. Harry was instantly on alert.

"Who are you?" He said in a defensive stance.

"A relative." He aimed this at Seth. "I've come to take you home."

"What are you talking about? My parents are dead." Seth said defiantly.

"They are. I'm your grandfather. I've come to take you back." The man said softly, as if talking to a frightened animal. "I'm sorry I didn't find you earlier than this. Your parents and I had an argument about their stance on the war; and we had been out of touch for a long time."

"I don't want to go!" Seth shouted. "You can't make me!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm doing this for your own good." The grandfather sighed.

"You heard him. He doesn't want to go." Harry blocked Seth from his view, eyeing the man dangerously.

"I know you might have a hard time accepting this, but it's necessary. If you continue to protest, I'm afraid I have no choice but to do this." The man slipped a wand out and shot a quick spell at Harry and Seth, binding them to place. He knocked Seth unconscious with a spell and carried him in his arms.

"I'm sorry, but this is for his sake." The man sent this at Harry, who was still bound in place.

Harry tried as hard as he could to break the spell.

_Come on, __move__!_

But his limbs wouldn't budge, and the man was getting farther by the second. He was out of the door now!

_No!_

Harry's muscles trembled at the force he was exerting on them, and suddenly, the spell was gone. Harry ran out of the orphanage door, desperately looking for any sign of the man.

He was gone!

Harry punched the wall in rage, and he didn't even notice when his knuckles started bleeding.

Dammit! He was furious!

Harry ran along the streets, clinging to a tiny shred of hope that the man was still there. He ran and ran, and he found himself in Diagon alley. He looked around, and the last ray of hope he was holding on to was crushed.

Harry's head reeled and he found a seat at Fortescue's as he thought about what to do. Seth was gone! There was no point in returning to the orphanage anymore.

He already had all his stuff in his backpack, and his wand was in his pocket. What should he do? He had to find Seth somehow.

But how?

"Well, what do we have here?" He heard a voice in his ear and looked up to find a blond man with long hair looking at him. "Harry Potter, the runaway child." The man smirked at him coldly.

Harry slowly slipped out of his seat. His mind wanted to grab onto the first thing it could to stop thinking about Seth, and that thing was now in front of him. His eyes had turned stony cold and looked almost black.

"I'm really not in the mood." Harry glared at the man.

The man suddenly stepped back, wiping a drop of sweat he didn't realize was there off his brow.

The child's eyes were soulless, almost. It intimidated him for a moment before he steeled himself. If he could stand the dark lord's glare, he could withstand anyone's. It was just a child.

"I'm afraid that doesn't matter." The man said as he grabbed him and pulled out a pocket watch from his pocket at the same time. The instant his hands touched the pocket watch, everything went black. He felt an immense pressure from each side, as if he was being pressed into a cube. And then suddenly, it ended as soon as it started.

Harry was overwhelmed by the events that seemed to come one after the other with no time in between. What in the world was happening? He kept his mask in place though, manipulative liar he was, and straightened up.

Black anger shot through him when he saw the blond man.

"Where is this?" He said quietly, a deadly look in his eyes. "What did you do to me?" Harry advanced towards him like a predator eyeing its prey hungrily.

Malfoy, however, was looking over his head and at something else. Harry felt the great magical aura behind him and spun around, eyes wide and looking for the threat.

It was man with a bald head and crimson eyes. His skin was unhealthily white and he had slits for a nose.

It was the dark lord.

Lovely.


	4. Dark Heir

By the way, 1 year has passed since Harry first arrived in the orphanage, so Harry is now 7.

* * *

Harry stared at the man in front of him, brain working at fifty times its normal speed to figure out a way from this mess. What in the world was happening?

"Who is this, Lucius?" Voldemort said, eyes narrowed.

"My lord, a medium tier death eater had seen him in Diagon and saw fit to inform me of his location. It's the runaway Potter child." Lucius said, kneeling with his head bowed.

Harry backed onto a wall. If a fight broke out, at least nobody could attack him from behind. But he knew he was hilariously outmatched. Lucius alone would have been enough to take him on. He had his wand, certainly, but the difference in spell arsenal and experience would prove fatal immediately.

He slid out his wand just in case.

"Interesting." The man murmured while looking at Harry, an amused glint in his eyes.

Harry's mind worked a mile an hour, trying to figure out a solution. He definitely couldn't win in a duel, so the only remaining option was talking his way out of it. Well, at least that was something he was good at.

"You're not going to get anything from holding me hostage, you know?" He said to the man, trying to buy himself time until he thought of an escape plan.

"Oh, and why is that, Potter?" The man said amusedly, looking like he knew what Harry was thinking of.

"They don't really care about me. So that rules out using me as leverage." Harry reasoned.

The man laughed out loud, causing a rope- no, a snake- around his shoulders to move.

"_What is it, master?" _Harry heard a hiss from the great green snake.

"_An amusing child, Nagini."_ The crimson eyes man hissed back.

"_Master, he understands."_ The serpent looked at him with piercing yellow eyes.

The dark lord's head snapped around, and he studied Harry with an interested glint in his eyes.

"Lucius. Leave us." He commanded.

"Yes, my lord." The blond man turned with one last bow and closed the door after him.

Harry felt a drop of sweat trickle down the back of his neck. He kept his cool, mind still working out a way to escape.

Voldemort studied the child, and found, much to his enjoyment, that he remembered this boy as the one he attacked years ago. Could it be? Had the light really messed up so badly?

Voldemort laughed out loud at the thought. _Fools_. They had doomed themselves.

_Why is he laughing? Is he crazy or something? This is dangerous. I have to work out a way to leave._

"_Tell me, child, do you support the light?" _The man asked keenly.

"…" Harry stared at the man. What as he playing at? "_No. Why would I run away if I liked it there?"_

"_I see."_ The man studied him calculatedly before an idea popped into his mind.

Why not?

The boy was like him in many ways; he couldn't ignore the similarities between them. The child also seemed to know a few spells, which means he must be gifted to actually be able to use a wand at that age.

"_Look at me and try to copy this spell."_ The dark lord said as he withdrew his wand from its holster. "_Diffindo_!"

A blue spell shot out of his wand towards a curtain, which was ripped in half. He hadn't put a lot of strength into the spell.

Harry's eyes widened in disbelief. He wanted him to copy a spell? He had the brother of the boy who lived, and he wanted to test his _magical ability_?

No, he could use this to his advantage. If he showed how talented he was, the dark lord might take him in as a follower, as opposed to just outright killing him. From there he could work out how to run away from this loony bin.

"_Diffindo!"_ Harry aimed the spell at another curtain.

The curtain was ripped in half and the window behind it was shattered with a crash.

The dark lord's eyes widened and he slowly sat forward in his throne. He was perfect.

"_Child, I have a proposition for you…" _He hissed with a smirk. "_How would you like to be my heir?"_

Harry choked on his tongue but managed to keep his face straight. His brain was temporarily frozen. The dark lord seemed to notice his long silence.

"_Child? Do you accept my offer?" _The man hissed with an eyebrow raised.

"_I think you broke his brain, master." _The majestic green snake hissed from beside his head.

Harry's brain went into overdrive.

What the _hell_ was happening?

He chose his next words carefully.

"_And if I… reject your kind offer?"_ He asked with a calm face.

"_You would refuse my generosity?_" The man narrowed his eyes at him.

"_Of course not. I accept."_ Harry grinned brightly at him. What else could he freaking do?

The man blinked at him, surprised at the quick reply.

"_Good." _He gazed at him with satisfied ruby eyes. "_I shall bestow upon you a new name. From now on, you shall be Kieran."_

Harry, still sort of shocked by the whole thing, remained silent, barely keeping his mouth from dropping to the floor.

"Bellatrix. Enter."

A tall, beautiful black-haired woman with long curls trailing down her back entered the room, gazing at the man with worshipful eyes that had an insane glint in them.

"Yes, my lord?" She bowed to him.

"I present to you my new heir. Prepare for the bequeathal ceremony and make sure it is ready in a week's time." He ordered.

"Of course, my lord!" She exclaimed and glanced at Harry curiously.

"For now, show him to the heir's floor next to mine." He commanded her, still looking at Harry contemplatively. "You are dismissed."

Bellatrix bowed on last time before motioning for Harry to follow her and walking out of the door.

"I don't what you did to get yourself in this situation but be careful, will you?" She said with a worried glint in her eyes. "You're just a kid."

"Tell that to your boss." He snorted.

She looked at him with something akin to amusement.

Harry looked around at the way they were going. Might as well memorize the outline if he was going to be stuck here for a while.

Harry walked behind her in the wide corridors designed to confuse people. Pureblood mansions were designed specifically to confuse intruders, and slow down any trespassers while the owner worked out how they had bypassed the wards, located them, and used the wards to expel the unwanted guests.

However, in their desire to create a chaotic, illogical pattern, they inevitably created some type of system by which they could navigate around the house. The complex system of twists and turns was also employed in the Potter manor.

Paranoid much?

Harry's lips lifted for a moment.

He studied the way and looked at the portraits on the wall as they passed. Finally, she stopped at a staircase.

It was a large, grand, staircase decorated with silver and green which Harry supposed led to his floor. They walked up the stairs and into a corridor that had elegant green carpets lining it, complete with silver furniture.

Eventually, Bellatrix stopped at a large door with a carving of two entwined snakes on it, one with emerald eyes, the other with red.

Bellatrix pushed open the door to reveal the largest common room Harry had ever seen. It was easily as big as a house. It was decorated with liquid silver colors and a beautiful, deep, shade of green, mixing together to give the room an air of elegance and serenity. The common room had a hallway that had six doors that led to rooms, supposedly for any guests he wanted to invite over. A moderately big staircase in the common room led to a hallway that had a silver door with green trimming and an imposing black door with a carving of a golden dragon at the end of it. The silver door led to a large bathroom. He pushed open the black doors, with Bellatrix following behind.

The doors swung open to reveal his bedroom.

It was enormous, with a huge, grand bed that had silky silver curtains around it. The room was decorated in black and gold, the darkness of the ebony furniture only making the deep gold decorations stand out more.

Harry wasn't surprised. His own quarters at the Potter manor would have resembled this had he waited there until he got older.

"Well, it's good enough, I suppose." He said, facing Bella.

"Call the house elves if you need anything." She turned with a last smirk and left out the door.

Harry lied down on the bed, thinking about his dilemma. Now that his head was a bit clearer, he supposed Seth would be okay. The old man hadn't seemed to want to harm Seth. He already knew about Hogwarts. Children received a letter when their magic matures enough for them to be able to handle it, but the minimum age was 9. Since Harry and Seth were both able to control their magic exceptionally well, they would both go to Hogwarts at 9, probably.

That meant that he had to wait for _two_ years to be reunited with him. Harry sighed as he thought of other ways to find him, but it was no use. Every plan he thought up had a hole in it. Waiting for two years was quickly and obviously becoming the only option Harry had.

Staying here as the dark heir was looking more desirable by the second compared to being back in the orphanage, this time without Seth.

Harry drifted off to sleep with these thoughts in mind.


	5. Letter

"_Wake up, little one."_

Harry, not a morning person, groggily opened his eyes.

"_What? But today is Saturday."_ He said, annoyed at being disturbed from his well-deserved rest_. "The _only _day I don't have lessons."_

Nagini made an amused sound, and flicked her tongue at him.

"_Have you forgotten, Hatchling?"_ Nagini hissed. _"The Bequeathing ceremony is being done today."_

Harry groaned before pushing himself off the bed while grumbling.

He went through his morning routine and put on his black robes before heading outside.

He walked past the hallways he had memorized in the time he had spent there and stopped at the door of his father's study. Voldemort had told him to call him father and Harry didn't really care. Hell, Voldemort was a lot better than Harry's last father anyways.

The door swung open to reveal his father standing beside his desk, along with Bellatrix and Lucius.

Harry walked over to stand beside his father.

"This will be fairly easy." His father drawled.

Harry drew his wand, and after he did so his father joined his hand with his in a grip similar to when making an unbreakable vow.

"_I, Lord Voldemort, adopt Kieran, and hereby bequeath upon him the title of the Heir of Slytherin."_ Voldemort hissed.

Then he motioned for Harry to make a small cut in his hand, drawing a small amount of blood. He proceeded to make a slash in his hand, dropping both his and Harry's blood into a vial filled with a golden liquid.

He then gave it to Harry who drank it down in one gulp.

A moment passed silently. Harry looked at Voldemort disdainfully.

"_That's it?" _Harry said raising an eyebrow, unimpressed.

Suddenly, a strong wave of magic enveloped him, making him breathless with its power. Eventually, the magic died down to a small buzz, and Harry stared at his palms in wonder.

"_You look… different."_ The dark lord remarked, smirking. _"Rather like me when I was your age."_

Harry summoned a mirror, and gazed into his reflection. His hair has grown straighter, now only slightly messy instead of the bird's nest it had been. His nose was straighter, his cheekbones were a bit higher, and he had grown a few inches taller. If anything he had become even more handsome than he was before. The greatest difference was, his eyesight was now perfect. He could see everything with a dazzling clarity.

He threw the mirror away and smirked at his father as it landed with a crash.

Harry stretched his hands upwards while he flexed his muscles. This body felt better than his older one. He smirked at his father with the candle light casting shadows on his exceedingly handsome features.

His father smirked back.

Harry guessed this wasn't half bad.

Especially since he didn't look like that mongrel, Potter, anymore.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

(8 years old.)

Harry was doing better than ever. He took lessons from lessons from Bellatrix and Lucius in all the magical subjects, and he was quite far for his age. Many things had changed since he had first come here. For example, the bird that was standing on his shoulder was one of them.

It was a beautiful deep blue bird with light blue plumage on its head. It had lapis lazuli eyes that pierced through your very soul. He had found it dying when he had just finished from a raid, and it burst into flames in front of him. He had taken the hatchling that emerged in his place back to his quarters. Since then, it had grown into a beautiful bird and had taken to following him around. He had no idea what species it was, but it definitely wasn't normal.

"_Hatchling, it's time for your lessons"_

"_Coming."_

Harry had wanted to escape at the beginning of his stay, but that desire lessened and dwindled until it vanished. At least he had a family, albeit an eccentric one. He had breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the dining hall with his father and Bellatrix and Lucius.

His father had also prepared his fake identity for Hogwarts by buying many controlling shares of a lot of companies and making Lucius manage it for Harry under the "Hades" family name; to make it more realistic.

He had grown to like his life at the dark lord's side very much, but his anger at the Potters only grew greater as he realized this was what was kept from him.

And Harry still hadn't forgotten Seth. Only one year to go.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

_(9 years old) _

Harry walked through the alley swiftly with deft steps, eventually coming out of the Knockturn and into Diagon. He was about to enter the Leaky Cauldron before a tawny owl threw a letter at his feet.

Harry bent down to pick it up and flipped the letter over.

_Mr. H. Potter_

_The Leaky Cauldron_

_Diagon Alley_

_London, England._

Harry tore the seal off and opened the letter, already knowing what to expect.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find __the __enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no laterthan 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Harry wore an idiotic grin on his face. He'd been waiting for this letter for a while now. If he got it; that meant Seth had too!

There was only one problem.

Harry waved his wand and a replica of the paper appeared, with the name Harry Hades on it.

Harry wandlessly transfigured his wand to a quill and wrote in an elegant, spidery handwriting.

_Coming._

Not the most elegant answer, per se, but Harry didn't care. He was going to see Seth!

Harry tied the letter to the owl's foot and it flew away back to Hogwarts.

Harry moved out of the dark corner he was at and near the fireplace used for flooing. He grabbed a pinch of the floo powder and threw it in the fire. He stepped into the green flames and whispered "Malfoy Manor" before apparating from there to Riddle Manor.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry knocked on the dark lord's study, before inviting himself into the room. His father was looking over some documents, and reviewing raid pans.

Harry flopped on the chair, throwing the letter on his father's desk. His father picked up the letter and started to read it.

"_I suppose you sent a replica?"_ His father asked.

"_Yes. It's not like they'll know the difference."_ Harry smirked.

"_Well, you'll need to go to Diagon Alley to get your supplies. I trust you can go by yourself?."_

Harry nodded.

"_Where's Bella? I haven't seen her in a while."_ He hissed.

"_She's busy planning raids and finishing missions. You probably won't see her for a few more months, but then again, you're going to Hogwarts, so you might not see her at all."_

"_Oh well, I guess there's no helping it." _Harry said thoughtfully_._

"_Now remember Kieran, if you're not in Slytherin…" _His father said.

"_Yes, yes. You'll threaten to burn the sorting hat until it changes its mind." _Harry smirked at him.

Voldemort mentally face-palmed. What in the heavens did he do to deserve this?

"_Run along now, Kieran, I have things to take care of. Be back at 4 for your lessons."_ His father rolled his eyes at him.

Harry smirked at his father before leaving the room with Morlain and heading to his sleeping quarters

He lied on his bed and set an alarm charm to wake him up at 3 before drifting off into a light sleep.

Soon, he would go to Hogwarts. And the sooner he could go, the sooner he could meet Seth.

And get revenge on the Potters, of course.


	6. Diagon Alley

**I know, I know. If Harry is nine years old, then how is he going to school with Malfoy and the rest of them? So in my fic, everybody else's birthday is moved one year back. Perfect, see? So Harry is nine and all Harry's year mates we know from the HP series are 10. Sorry, but Harry's age is actually important for me when writing this fic.**

* * *

_**~Diagon Alley~**_

Harry sat still for a moment, relishing the cool touch of the silk sheets and wishing he could sleep more, before pulling himself together and pushing himself upright and out of bed. He had to get ready for the trip to Diagon alley, but damn it, he was still so sleepy! His father and he had already agreed that he wouldn't have to wear a glamour at Hogwarts, as it was tiresome to reapply it every time it fades, and besides, none of the Deatheaters knew his face because he was always covered by a cloak, just his name.

Harry wore a velvety black cloak, with a green clasp to hold it, and apparated beside the entrance of Diagon alley.

He drew his wand and tapped the wall, watching unimpressed as a growing hole appeared between the bricks. He elegantly stepped through it and ignored the surprised stared he was getting. It wasn't often you see a 9-year-old walking alone armed with a wand. Actually, it wasn't common at all. Harry merely glanced icily towards anyone who was too nosy. Harry strode in with his hands behind his neck, yawning.

Harry walked up to Gringotts lazily, stopping in front of a goblin's desk.

"I want to see Ragnok before accessing my vault."

The goblin didn't look up.

"Key."

Harry glared maliciously at the disrespectful goblin, and a tendril of his magic slipped out of his control and lashed out at the unsuspecting goblin. The goblin looked up, startled. Harry smiled at him sweetly before rummaging through his cloak.

This was oddly reminiscent.

Harry searched through his many hidden pockets which contained various dangerous objects hidden in boxes which had shrinking charms placed upon them. He finally located the damned metal insignia before throwing it on the table.

The goblin had a look of newfound interest and respect on his face. This child was powerful. He then glanced closely at the metal object.

"That seems to be in order." He said, studying him from behind his spectacles. "Grungdall!"

Yet another goblin appeared beside Harry.

"Follow me, please." The goblin said, leading him to Ragnok's office

"Mr. Potter. You haven't dropped in for a while." Ragnok greeted him. "I suppose you would like me to inform you of the latest changes in your finances?"

"Go on." Harry said while blinking blearily and flopping on the leather armchair.

"Your money has been steadily increasing since you switched it to a new vault two years ago. We have invested your money most wisely, and by now you have controlling shares in several famous companies and a considerable amount of upcoming, promising ones."

"Your fortune, in the past three years, had grown into more than triple its past amount. Your total money comes up somewhere close to three quarters of a million."

Harry grinned at him deviously.

"Good work, Ragnok. I expect you to keep it up." He said before standing up and steadying himself.

"No worries, Mr. Potter." Ragnok slid his glasses back up his nose. "Your money is in safe hands."

Harry merely smirked back at him as he left the room.

Griphook was waiting for him outside, and led to a large wooden door.

It opened to reveal a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. The path sloped downwards and had railway tracks on it.

Griphook whistled and a cart came zooming from the bottom and stopped in front of them. They climbed in and the cart started its trip to his family vault. As the cart went faster, Harry cast an air-repelling charm on himself to avoid his clothes getting messed up. The ride went on for a few minutes before stopping.

"Vault eight hundred ninety two." The goblin announced.

It was a high security vault belonging to his father, and one of the most heavily protected vaults in the whole bank, ranking behind only a few other vaults. The deeper the vault, the more protected it is, which meant that his was very well protected indeed.

A three-headed dragon that was tethered to the ground was guarding it, flames swirling out of its nostrils. Griphook produced a set of metal instruments, clankers, and shook them. A loud ringing sound like miniature anvils on anvils emanated from them, and the dragon trembled and retreated, cowering at the sound. It was taught to fear hot swords, which probably caused the scars across its face, when it heard the sound of the clankers.

Griphook and Harry proceeded to the door of the vault, and Griphook pushed the metal insignia into an opening, and placed both hands on the door, before it melted away to reveal a cave-like room filled from top to bottom with golden galleons and goblets, mounds of invaluable trinkets and jewelry, priceless artifacts and precious stones, the hides of strange creatures, potions encased in jeweled flasks, and all kinds of dark tomes. The vault was filled with unearthly riches and all manners of antique relics and rare, unique indispensable materials that had been collected over generations.

He expected nothing less.

The goblin waited outside while harry made his withdrawal. Harry waved his hands and hundreds of gold coins flew into his bottomless pouch. There were two other things he needed. He searched around until he found the tome in question. It was a tome on dark and ancient rituals, and he had been looking forward to reading it for some time now. The other thing was an artifact that made strong glamours that were however, limited in area. It might come in handy later on. He headed out of the vault, his mood now lightened. He climbed back into the cart, and soon he was back in front of Diagon alley's entrance. He spotted Lucius with his son a few steps away and Harry smirked at Lucius.

Lucius's eyes widened at him and he gave him a nervous smile.

Harry walked away from father and son and left them to their own.

He marched to _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, _where he had his measurements taken for his tailor-made school uniform. The woman stood them on stools while she pinned the long silk robes to fit his frame.

"Ouch!" Harry shouted.

"It's okay, dear, we're almost done!" The woman said cheerfully.

"Seriously…" Harry muttered as he hopped off his stool. "Be a bit more careful, will you?"

"Hello." Harry heard a voice beside him and turned to fin Draco Malfoy. "Going to Hogwarts too?"

"Yes."

"Father's left to get my other things and left me here to get my robes and mother's looking at wands. I'm going to make father buy me a broom. Do you play Quidditch?"

"Yeah. I'm a chaser." He lied easily. He was good at Quidditch, he just didn't have anyone to play with.

"Which house do you want to be sorted into? I'm going to be a Slytherin. I'd rather die if they made me a Hufflepuff."

"I'm probably going to Slytherin too." Harry said, bored already.

"Draco Malfoy, by the way. Who are you?" He asked as Madame Malkin called out his name.

"Hadrian Hades." He threw out in a final tone before running up to the counter and picked up his school uniform. He also got a few dress robes and warm cloaks for the winter.

After he was done, he headed to the shop next to _Madam Malkin's_, _Scribbulus Writing Implements. _Harry purchased enough quills for the upcoming school year, and a sufficient amount of ink, and many rolls of parchment he would need for his classes. There was one quill in particular which impressed him; it had a black feather that posed a sharp contrast to the golden metal it was gracefully standing on. He then headed to _Flourish and Blotts _to get his school books.

Harry walked into the mahogany colored shop, browsing through the paltry -compared to his- collection of books. He walked up to the man at the counter and looked up at him

"Where can I find my school books?" He asked, hands in pockets.

"Well, well, a first-year, I suppose?" The man said cheerily. "Her, right this way, you can pick up your books from there."

He led Harry towards several pile of books stacked over each other neatly, motioning towards one of the piles.

"That should have everything you need." The man left with a smile.

Harry found all the books that were on his left and approached the counter, placing them easily on it.

"Well, young man, you must be very strong to carry them all at once here." The older man smiled gently at him.

"I exercise." Harry gave a laugh as he thought about all the Quidditch he played at the Potters in addition to the lesson his father had given him about reinforcing his body with magic. He was probably much, much stronger than the average adult, and he still hadn't even mastered the art like his father did.

"On my word!" The man exclaimed as he tried to carry all the books at once and almost stumbled. "I must be getting out of shape."

"I guess so." Harry laughed innocently.

"Well here you go, child." The man placed the books in Harry's cauldron and cast a floating charm on it. "That should help you."

"Thanks, old man." Harry grinned at the unnecessary kindness; after all he could carry it just fine, before running off, cauldron floating behind him.

He walked into Magical Menagerie while looking at the required material in his hands.

"A cat, owl, or frog, huh?"

Harry looked around at the variety of animals and scratched his head. Aria, his blue bid, would kill him if he got another bird. Harry walked out of the shop empty-handed.

He was finally done!

Maybe he should go get ice-cream or something. He walked to Fortescue's and ordered two scoops of chocolate ice-cream. Which reminded him, he didn't get his school supply of chocolate yet.

He walked around Diagon alley, looking for a candy shop. Seriously, there wasn't even one in sight.

Harry finally spotted it near the entrance and almost hit himself for being so stupid before running to the shop.

Harry started piling up every single piece of chocolate and candy he could see, until it almost seemed like there was a mountain of candy in the shop.

Harry walked up to the counter and looked up at the woman uncaringly.

"How much does this cost?"

"My! Are you sure you should be getting all of that? How will you even carry it?" The woman asked him, astonished.

"Just tell me the price already." Harry said, smirking.

He paid her the amount owed and opened his trusty bottomless backpack, casting a spell on the mountain of sugar. The boxes of candy flew into the backpack one by one until they were all in and Harry closed it. If a normal person tried to pick up his backpack, they would probably fall down in a second because of how heavy it is.

"Hey, thanks!" He called out as he ran out of the shop, leaving behind dumbfounded costumers and a stunned shop keeper, who now had half the candy in her store taken by one boy.

Harry grinned as he congratulated himself on a good day and a job well done.

He whistled as he walked up to the leaky cauldron, stopping when he heard a familiar voice laughing. Harry saw his parents laughing as they led Damon Potter to Diagon alley. Harry's eyes stared coldly for a moment before he walked into the floo, going back to the mansion

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry was heading to his father's study when he heard a shout behind him.

"Kieran!"

Harry paled before hurling himself away from his place, just seconds before arms grabbed the empty space he was standing in. He turned around to find Bellatrix looking at him happily; trying to trap him in a hug.

"Hey, hey… No need to try to kill me, Bella." He raised his hands by his sides as he reasoned before running away from her and sending a tripping charm over his shoulder. Bellatrix deftly avoided it before chasing after him. Harry turned around and cast a non-verbal binding charm before pinning her to the wall with a spell.

Bellatrix stared at him for a moment before breaking into a grin.

"Kieran! How I missed you!"

"Have you calmed down yet?" He eyed her cautiously before releasing the spell.

Bellatrix bounded up to him grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the dark lord's study.

"The dark lord decided to let me off for a while, so that I can see you before you leave for Hogwarts."

Harry smiled at her and stopped at the door, and it opened of its own accord when it recognized his magical signature.

He walked in and slumped on the chair beside his father's desk.

His father looked up from his paperwork, noting Bella.

"I see you've already found him."

She smirked at him.

"Yes, my lord."

Harry smirked and shook his head before looking at his father.

"So, any plans coming up?"

"As a matter of fact, there is a raid in a few days' time." His father looked at him.

"When can I come to watch one of those?" Harry asked, yawning.

"You're still too young Kieran. Give it a few years." His father stated, looking smugly at him.

"You might die in a few years, father." He smirked at Voldemort.

"Brat." Voldemort rolled his eyes at him.

Harry turned his attention back to his father, wanting to discuss the raid plans when yet another person entered the room. It was Alphard Black Jr., probably back from a raid. He had the typical handsome good looks of the Blacks with the dark hair and eyes.

"My lord, the raid was successful, and the Light was heavily injured. Dumbledore will probably show up in the next raid to make up for the absence of the injured order members." He said while smirking and nodded to Harry when he noticed him.

Harry smiled innocently.

"Excellent." His father said. "You may take a break till the next raid."

"Yes, my lord."

Harry turned to Alphard and stood up.

"I haven't seen you in a long while. Walk with me." He motioned to the door.

They strolled in the hallways, and Alphard turned to Harry.

"So how have you been doing?"

"Excellent. The next raid is going to be at a muggle village, right?"

"Yes."

"Black will probably be there." Harry winked at him.

"A disgrace to the family name, I assure you." He said in a disgusted voice. "The blood traitor will get what he deserves."

"Anyways, I heard that you're going to Hogwarts."

"You heard correctly."

Something passed by them with blinding speed, and Harry sighed as he saw Nagini chase after Pettigrew.

"_Run, cowardly mouse. Run away, you filth!_"

The mouse scurried away, frightened, and the snake went chasing after him.

Alphard gazed amusedly after them.

"She never tires of chasing that worm, does she?"

"Considering his spineless attitude, I don't think they ever will." Harry said coldly with a disgusted expression. "The only reason he's still alive is because he has yet to teach me the art of becoming an animagus."

"Pathetic weakling, that Pettigrew." Alphard snorted.

They reached the stairs that lead to Harry's floor, and they turned to each other.

"I'll see you later." Alphard said.

Harry grinned at him as he ran up the stairs.

He was going to Hogwarts!

* * *

**There! This was kind of hard to write, but I hope the next chapter will be easier. Okay, it's really late in my country now, so I'll go to sleep. Now I'm going to have to go to school with black bags under my eyes. :P**

**Hope you enjoyed it, and see you again next week!**


	7. Reunion

_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot._

* * *

_**~Reunion~**_

Harry woke up to find himself sleeping on his couch in the living room by the raid plans on the table, doing some last minute checks, making sure nothing's wrong with the plan.

They were going to attack a muggle village on the borders of Britain. The Deatheaters would gather in the throne room at 9 o'clock sharp, no delays. They would then apparate to the village, where they would proceed to kill the filthy muggles. Harry estimated the order would take 10-15 minutes to arrive, and another 10 to get backup -primarily Dumbledore- when they realized they were outnumbered. Greatly. Dumbledore would then come as quickly as possible, bringing important order members such as Mad-eye, Black, Kingsley, and James Potter.

Even though Harry wasn't allowed to participate in raids yet, his father still expected him to study raid plans in order to prepare for the future.

The worst case scenario was that they would get themselves injured whilst fighting Dumbledore. The order would cause a great number of casualties among the Deatheaters, and they would be reduced greatly in number.

In the best case scenario the order members are killed along with the muggles. Terror would be stricken into the heart of the wizarding world, and people would fear the dark lord more than ever.

However, no deatheater would be captured, dead or alive. All deatheaters would have a small bracelet portkey that was set to transport all of them to the dark lord's mansion at midnight. It was one of Harry's more ingenious ideas. This would only work once because the light wouldn't expect portkeys to be used and so won't set up anti-portkey wards.

Harry was bored, so he decided to go for a walk. He headed out of his quarters clad in his signature black, black robes. As soon as he was out of the mansion, he apparated to Diagon Alley's entrance, deciding that he'd go to Knockturn Alley.

He walked on the cobbled path until he reached the narrow dark street that led to Knockturn. His black robes billowed behind him as if they were moving shadows, waiting for their master's order to attack. He strolled towards the apothecary, thinking he would stock up on his potion ingredients while he was at it. He entered the apothecary, wrinkling his nose when the foul odor hit him. It smelled like rotten eggs and blood. He saw several illegal ingredients lying around on the shelves. If the ministry raided this place, the owner was definitely going to be sent to Azkaban for the rest of his life. He spotted many ingredients such as erumpent horns, sphinx tails, something that remarkably resembled a human hand, fire crab shells, fairy wings, and what suspiciously looked like unicorn blood in a crystal vial.

Harry purchased a few ingredients. Actually, now that he was here, he remembered about the ritual he was preparing for. Many people had wondered about what had given the dark lord the ability to fly without support of a magical vehicle. It defied the very laws of magic itself. Well, they would never find out. It was a ritual his father had developed in his youth; and it just went to show how much of a prodigy his father was, to achieve this at such a young age. But Harry wasn't one to be bested by anybody, even his father; he went a step ahead and improved upon the ritual after studying the tomes he had acquired from the vault. Granted, his father probably could improve it more than he could, but he had given the task to Harry to test his knowledge, and Harry didn't disappoint.

He could now, theoretically, fly through walls when in his "spirit form". He hadn't tried it yet, but the the theory was pretty sound, and he was actually going to do it. It wasn't really an energy-draining process, and though it would take up a considerable portion of his energy, it wasn't anything serious.

Harry scrunched up his nose again as he approached the ingredients needed and purchased even more nasty components. After he finished, he went out of the place and cast a charm to filter out the nasty smell that stuck in his robes. Blergh, these things can kill.

Harry flooed into an inconspicuous area then apparated to his father's mansion; he decided to finish the ritual and then review raid plans with his father before heading to bed.

Harry heaved himself off the bed and headed to the potions lab to prepare the ritual. He chose a large spacious cauldron which could fit a man, and started organizing the ingredients neatly before lighting the fire under the cauldron. He threw in the ingredients one by one in order, and stirred according to his developed formula, and swished his wand over the cauldron after mixing the ingredients.

He would need to let it simmer for about… 45 minutes.

Harry sat down and waited till the potion was finished. He dozed off lightly and woke up as the potion was almost ready. Harry snuffed the fire out with a flick of his wand then jumped lightly into the cauldron after throwing his clothes to the ground. His muscles rippled as his body adjusted to the icy temperature of the potion, which apparently wasn't affected by the fire that was used to brew it.

"_Darkest magic known from lore, from deep slumber I now invoke. Give this body the power to soar; mortal flesh shall turn to smoke. From room to room through walls and floors, the power to pass through locked doors. From air to ground down ceilings and roofs, from ground to air with nimble moves. Grant me this for I have asked, to add one more to powers amassed."_

Harry infused his voice with the needed amount of magic as he said the words of the ritual. Suddenly, an icy feeling spread over his body, like every single pore was being frozen. Gradually, the coldness receded and he was filled with a sense of power. He jumped out of the cauldron and waving his wand, clothed himself. He was still a bit dizzy from the amount of magic he used up, but he would recover enough by tomorrow night. But for now…

Harry grinned as he stared down at his hands and willed them to turn to smoke. His hands instantly transformed into flowing currents of darkness that were constrained into an outline of a hand. Harry then willed and turned his entire body into smoke and flew through the air.

_This was awesome!_

Harry speeded towards the walls of his room and steadied himself instinctively for an impact, but he passed through it as easily as air passes through webs.

_So it worked..._

Harry zoomed through walls towards his father's study, and solidified himself once he arrived. He saw his father still at his desk, doing some more paperwork. His father looked up once Harry soared into the room.

"I take it the ritual was a success then?" His father said, already knowing the answer.

Harry nodded, smirking.

"Excellent. I didn't expect any less of you." His father's lips stretched into a similar smirk.

"Anyways, I want you to meet a new recruit; he is currently functioning as a spy. I have chosen to put him under your control, as I have no need of him with Severus."

"Sure." Harry yawned. "But what is so unique about this spy?"

"He's about your age, and very talented at that, though you are probably more gifted. He will be accompanying you to Hogwarts."

"Hn."

"He… has a rather advantageous position. You can take him to your chambers later and get better informed of his circumstances."

"I don't need to remind you; never trust spies. One who betrays once can betray again. They can defect just as easily as they switched sides in the first place."

"Of course, father." Harry's lips lifted in a deceptive smile.

"Come in."

The door opened, and footsteps were making their way to the dark lord's side, but Harry didn't turn around to see the approaching figure.

"Kieran, this is Seth Prewett. I have a meeting to attend to, so I will take my leave." Voldemort said as he walked out of the room with a pat on Harry's shoulder.

The short boy walked with light steps into Harry's line of sight.

"…"

"…"

"Seth!"

"Harry!"

They shouted at the same time.

Harry ran to stand in front of him directly.

"How'd you get here!" Harry couldn't believe his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Seth said, an exhilarated smile on his face.

Harry gaped at him and shook his head.

"Follow me. We're going to my room." Harry said, a grin spreading on his face.

Harry and Seth ran excitedly to the heir's room, grinning at each other the whole way.

They ran into the gold and black door and Harry swung it shut after him.

They sat on Harry's bed and faced each other.

"You start first." Harry said, falling back on the bed. "I'm pretty sure your story is more interesting."

"Well, you remember when my gramps took me from the orphanage, right? It turned out that he was Ignatius Prewett, the last remaining pureblood of the Prewett family who was neutral dark. My parents were killed in the war, and he didn't know until much later. They had a fallout after my parents sided with Dumbledore in the first war. I was placed in a muggle orphanage by some family that found me. He didn't know that I existed until he visited one of our manors in Russia and happened upon the family tapestry by accident. It was only a matter of time before he found me at the orphanage."

"I knew you were interesting from the moment I saw you." Harry grinned at him.

"Coming from you, that's a bit…" Seth scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

Harry laughed at him.

"Go on."

"Well, my grandfather tutored me in magic and brought in other teachers too, so I'm pretty advanced in magic. But his health was pretty weak, and he died a year after he took me back."

"Dumbledore made it so that I was placed with the Weasleys instead of the Blacks, my grandmother, Lucretia Black's family. He used the Black's dark aligning as an excuse to place me under the care of Molly Weasley, my grandfather's niece."

"That old geezer..." Harry muttered, annoyed.

"Well, my gramps did teach me a lot of magic, especially from the family tomes. One of the stuff I learned was how to make a doppelgänger. I'm not very good at it, though, so it can't speak." Seth chuckled embarrassedly. "Which is why I can only sneak out at night."

"And you decided to use your new skills to become a _spy_?" Harry slapped the back of Seth's head. "_Seth_! Seriously! That is so stupid!"

"Well, I thought it would be fun, and I don't really like the light anyways. They got my family killed, after all." Seth said weakly while grinning, holding the back of his head.

Harry sighed as he shrugged in defeat.

"Well, after your old man grabbed you, I ran out to look for you two. I ended up in Diagon alley after running for a while." Harry said with his hands behind his neck. "You know that I ran away from home, right?"

Seth nodded.

"Well, a medium tier death eater tipped off one the dark lord's closest servants about my location, and he took me to the dark lord. They were probably going to use me as leverage or something, but Voldemort decided to, err, well, how can I say this, adopt me."

"And you said I'm stupid, Harry?" Seth grinned at him.

"Hey, what could I do?" He said defensively. "So I'm now his adopted son."

"By the way, did you get your Hogwarts letter?" Harry said, suddenly remembering.

"Yeah! So you got it too?" Seth said excitedly.

"Heh. We did it!" Harry high-fived Seth.

"Hey, Seth, tell me more about the doppelgänger." Harry said, an idea popping into his head. If he could make the doppelgänger act exactly like Seth, Seth could stay with Harry while the doppelgänger pretended to be him all day long!

"Huh?" Seth tried to remember everything he learned. "Mine can last for as long as you want, and when you dispel it, all the memories it has becomes yours."

That was good. But could he make it intelligent?

"Show me the runes you used." Harry jumped off the bed and summoned a large piece of parchment and a quill.

"Well…" Seth started to draw a few runes on the paper and was done after a while. He them placed his hands on the parchment and released a burst of magic to power the runes, which glowed red before going back to their dull black color.

"Whew." Seth wiped sweat off his brow. "Now you just need to press it to a mirror and it'll activate."

Harry studied the runes carefully. How could he combine them with a rune for intelligence without it backfiring? He would need to work on this. It would take a lot of time, certainly, but he could do it, probably by the end of the year.

"I'm going to study it and make some changes." Harry gathered the parchment and stuffed it into his backpack, which was lying against the bed.

"You still have that?" Seth noticed the backpack and grinned. "It's pretty handy."

"Try picking it up." Harry smirked at him.

Seth looked at it curiously before putting his hands on the strap and pulling on it. He pulled again, harder this time. He tried again with all his strength, but he fell down on the floor, panting with the effort. Harry snickered at him.

"Merlin, Harry! What did you put in there?" He exclaimed, sweating.

"Candy." Harry smirked. "And a few other things."

"Candy?" Seth said incredulously. "Oh no. knowing you, there's probably a mountain there! How do you carry it?"

"Easy." Harry leaned down and grabbed the strap with one hand, picking it up easily. "Like this."

"Wow, Harry, you're strong! I couldn't even budge it!" Seth looked at him with awed eyes.

"I'm not really that strong. Father can lift way more." Harry said, uncomfortable, with a hand behind his head. "I could teach you later, if you want."

"Sure!" Seth said happily with a grin. "But for now, could you give me some of that candy? I'm starving!"

"Help yourself, I bought lots." Harry said, sitting down on the floor next to him.

They tried out Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and laughed at the disgusting flavors they each got until Seth had to go.


	8. Hogwarts

_Disclaimer: Read previous chapters._

* * *

_**~Hogwarts~ **_

Harry was thinking. He had to adapt his mannerisms to fit in the carefree, naïve, innocent air that was at Hogwarts. Huh, he'll adapt his behavior one he got there as he saw fit.

Harry roused himself from sleep forcefully; reminding himself that today was the day he'd go to Hogwarts. He picked up his heir ring from the bedside table and slid it on his middle finger. He glanced at his reflection in full length mirror, annoyed at his bed head, which however was actually way less messy than it would have been before the blood adoption.

He grabbed his wand from under his pillow and spelled himself clean before heading to his wardrobe and opening the giant doors. He wore a green silk button-up shirt with grey trousers and grabbed a black tie on his way to the mirror. He started tying it into a knot and tightened it around his throat.

Harry put his shrunk trunk in his robe's pocket, and let out Aria from her cage, letting it fly and land on his shoulder.

"Go to Hogwarts and wait for me in the owlery." Harry told it as he ran his fingers through it light blue plumage. It gave a soft sound of agreement as it watched with its intelligent sapphire eyes before it took off and beat its mighty wings in the air, moving faster than any bird Harry ever saw. His familiar was definitely interesting.

Harry checked to see all his things were with him.

He apparated into train station's entrance, making sure no one saw him. He moved to the platform's entrance, standing by as they saw a family of redheads sending off their kids. The Weasleys were ushering their sons forward into the pillar, making their youngest one actually run at it with his luggage cart. Seth walked through it calmly seeing no need to endanger himself by running at it. The whole family went one by one until they had all left.

"That's stupid." He laughed as he walked through the barrier slowly.

A huge scarlet train stood proudly at the rails, and a sign overhead said _Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. _The platform was packed with people who were saying last minute goodbyes to their children. The place looked bizarre with people trying to step around cats and kids showing off their pets to their friends and younger sisters and brothers crying because they wanted to go to Hogwarts too. The whole place was giving off enough noise to scare a dinosaur away.

"This is it."

Harry quickly found an empty compartment at the end of the train.

He was sitting by the window, looking at the houses as they swished past.

His father had bought a rather huge mansion that was supposedly his home, and he was supposedly there during the summer vacation.

Harry took out a book from his cloak and enlarged it to its original size. It was actually an advanced spell book, but he had changed the book cover to _Hogwarts: A History._

He heard the compartment door slide open and turned his head slowly to find a bushy haired girl with big front teeth and a chubby meek boy.

"Have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one." She said in an annoying bossy voice.

"No." He said. "I don't think so."

"Is that _Hogwarts: A history? _I've done a little reading myself and it's such an interesting book! I've read all of our set books too. I've heard that Hogwarts is the greatest school …mbledore … yffindor? ... hea… hope … great."

Harry just stared at her, blinking slowly while she blabbered away nonsensically. He stretched his hands while tuning her out and waiting for her to finish her chattering. By the time she stopped, Harry had been reduced to yawns.

"The name is Hermione Granger, by the way, and this is Neville Longbottom. Who are you?" She said as she extended her hand.

"I don't really care. Can you just leave me alone?" Harry glanced at her, annoyed.

He then returned to reading his interesting book, looking for all the world like he didn't see them there at all.

She was gaping at when Longbottom tugged her sleeve and looked at her sadly.

"It's okay, Hermione. Let's go look somewhere else."

"B-but…"

And they were gone, the compartment door sliding shut after them.

Huh. An interesting spell. Maybe he should learn this one.

After a half hour or so, the door slid open once more to reveal Seth, grinning at him heartily.

"I finally found you! I've been looking all over for you!" He sat down beside him. "What're you doing?"

"Reading."

"Well, I've been with Fred and George Weasley- wicked bunch, by the way, you'd love them- and they said that we'd have to fight trolls to get sorted."

"And you believed that?" Harry snorted as he flipped a page.

"Of course not." He shrugged and said thoughtfully. "Ron seemed to buy it. Damon didn't believe a word though."

"They use a hat. It was enchanted to have brains and personality by the founders and it employs legilimency to read your thoughts. It magically determines which house you'll go to."

"That's awesome!" Seth exclaimed before hesitating. "Err, but… Wouldn't that blow your cover?"

"Nope. I'm using occlumency." Harry smirked wickedly.

"That's good." Seth said, relieved.

The door slid open again, but this time, a girl wearing school robes and a Slytherin tie was there.

"I'm Gemma Farley, a prefect. You're the first years, right? You should wear your robes, we're almost there."

"Whatever. We get it already." Harry rolled his eyes as he placed his feet on the seat in front of him.

"Hehe, sorry, he just gets bored easily sometimes." Seth smiled awkwardly as he tried to make up for Harry's rude attitude. "I'm Seth Prewett and this is Harry Hades. Nice to meet you."

She blinked at him, surprised.

"Well, just wear your robes." She turned with a smile and left the compartment.

Seth sighed at Harry.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

They were led into the Great Hall by McGonagall, who set a three footed stool in front of them, on top of which she placed a frayed, patched, and worn out pointy wizard's hat.

Thousands of candles were floating around, lighting the place and casting a flickering light on everything around them. Hundreds of faces stared back at them under the candle light, and the ghosts seated at various chairs on every table shone silver. The ceiling showed a beautiful silky black sky dotted with shining stars. The first years all looked at least partly nervous, with some looking downright sick. There was a table at the head of the room with Dumbledore in the middle and teachers on either side.

A rip near the hat's brim opened like a mouth, and a voice came out of it as it started to sing:

'_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

The hat sang a short rhyme describing what qualities each house looked for in its students and bowed as everybody clapped and soon McGonagall took out a scroll.

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put on the hat to be sorted." She called out. "Abbot, Hannah!"

A plump golden haired girl walked nervously, sat down on the stool, and put the hat over her head.

"_HUFFLEPUFF!"_ The hat shouted after a second or two. The Hufflepuffs roared in applause for the first addition to their house.

Harry watched with slight interest as he prepared himself to be sorted. He was using advanced occlumency to suppress his memories and emotions- especially the hate. He suppressed all and memories he had when living with the dark lord and the Potters, but let his memories of the orphanage roam freely. That would keep the hat from knowing who he was. After all, who would suspect the dark heir was an orphan?

Soon, his turn came.

"Hades, Hadrian!"

Harry walked calmly towards the stool, sat down, and pulled the hat over his eyes.

"_What have we got here…"_ A voice whispered. "_Unusual. Very difficult. You have talent. Dangerous talent. Your mind is complex; you are too mature for a child."_

Harry felt the hat brush aside his occlumency barriers like they were dust. Startled, he instinctively tried to shut the intruder out but to no avail.

"_Occlumency, and at quite a young age too. Plenty of talent, dangerous talent. You'll be quite the powerful wizard when you grow up, won't you Mr. Potter?"_

"…_!"_

"_Do not fret; I am bound to keep your secrets. I see you've led quite the difficult life." _Harry felt the hat shuffle through his memories at an inhuman pace._ "Now, let's see; a large reserve of courage and loyalty, and plenty of cunning and genius. You do not trust easily either. You do not seek knowledge for knowledge's sake, so that rules out Ravenclaw."_

_"So where to put you Mr. Potter? There is no doubt that your ambitions are great, whether they are terrible or good. But a goal so great demands you set yourself apart. Alas, leaders are always alone, Mr. Hades, remember that. Ambition has always been, and will always be a trait of SLYTHERIN!"_

The hat shouted out the last part and the Slytherins erupted in cheers as he moved to their table. Harry discreetly cast a notice-me-not and sat at a random chair and ignored everybody around him, choosing to focus on Seth.

Damon Potter, as expected, was sorted into Gryffindor, and so at last came Seth's turn. He had already told Seth to place himself in Gryffindor if he could, as that would draw less attention to him than Slytherin, with Harry. And Harry was certain he could. After all, Seth was brave and had a strong sense of justice, so why wouldn't he? Kinda reckless too, which just cemented it, in is point of view. He ignored the part of him that was telling he was all that too. Except for the justice part, maybe.

"Prewett, Seth!"

Seth walked with a spring in his steps towards the stool and sat down, placing the hat on his head.

The hat shouted out "_Gryffindor!"_ after a minute or two.

Harry smirked to himself. Everything was going according to plan.

As the sorting came to an end, Dumbledore stood up, and started saying random words that had seemingly no connection to each other. This was just another proof of his senility, Harry was sure.

An immense amount of food, every kind imaginable, appeared on the table.

Harry looked at the wide assortment of food and took a plate of steak and ate away.

Soon, the feast was over, and the Slytherin prefect told then to follow as she led them to the entrance of the Slytherin dungeon. Harry dropped the charm and followed.

"Pay attention. You're going to have to memorize the route if you want to get out tomorrow morning." Farley said.

The maze-like dungeon was filled with turns and misleading hallways, an effective defense mechanism in preventing others from finding the Slytherin common room. The dungeons had cool to the touch walls made of cold stone, giving the place a mysterious yet elegant feel. Harry memorized the plethora of turns and twists, so he didn't have to follow one of the older students back to the Great Hall later on.

Finally, they arrived at a stretch of wall just like any other, presumably the entrance, which in Harry's opinion suited the Slytherins. The entrance, just like them, was misleading and crafty.

"This is the entrance to our common room. You have to give the password for the door to reveal itself; be careful though, the password changes every fortnight." She said in a cheery voice. "You'll notice it's a very good choice for an entrance, as intruders won't know where our common rooms are. You are forbidden from bringing students from other houses here; no outsider has entered in more than 700 years."

She turned to the wall and said in a clear wall, _"Aurum potestas est!"_

The stone door hid by the wall slid open, and the Slytherins stepped into a grand room filled with leather couches and elegant wood tables, complete with intricately designed fireplaces and decorations on the wall.

"Welcome to the Slytherin common rooms." Farley said with a grin. "We're going to give you the first year's introduction course!"

Harry sat on the couch in front of Farley imperiously, staring at her with his vivid green eyes. Others followed his example and Draco Malfoy sat beside him, all looking up at the prefect, who now had several older students standing with her, all smiling down at them.

"Now, you've probably heard people presenting us Slytherins in an unfair light. Contrary to popular belief, most Slytherins are not dark lord followers, nor are they dabbling in dark arts day and night. All the houses have produced their share of dark wizards; they just don't like to admit it. Now, another thing you should know about us Slytherins is that we always look after our own. We are all brothers and sisters here in Slytherin house, unlike the Ravenclaws who step on each other to get better marks. Remember that, serpents always stick together." She looked at them intensely.

Most looked disgusted at the mention of treachery.

"Most people tend to say that we're a power hungry ambitious bunch. Well, think about it this way. Would you want to be like that notorious Gryffindor, Edgar Bylantine, inventor of the infamous Cockroach Clusters? Or would you like to be like Merlin? Yes, that's another fact the other houses forget to mention. Merlin, the greatest wizard there ever was, was in Slytherin! He learnt everything he knew in these very rooms! The sorting hat put all of you into Slytherin because it knew you have the potential to be great!" This time, one of the older boys spoke up.

At this, Harry glanced dubiously at Crabbe and Goyle, who seemed to be bewildered at the abundance of words. Farley noted where he was looking and looked at him sternly.

"If you spot anybody who doesn't look all that promising, well, keep it to yourself. The sorting hat saw something great in them and don't you forget it."

"Anyways, as you can see, we Slytherins are the elite of this school, and once you become a Slytherin, as far as we're concerned you're elite too, no matter what family you're from. And as elites, we accept nothing but the best in everything, whether it is our common room, sleeping quarters, or classwork and sports. Our common rooms are the most lavish and our sleeping quarters the most spacious and expensive. Also, we expect you to help each other in your studies. If you have trouble with a subject, seek the help of your classmates. Slytherin house is united, and shows no weakness to others."

"Now, enough about us. Let's talk about others." A blonde girl spoke up this time. " Speaking of people who aren't destined for greatness, I give you the foremost example: the Gryffindorks. People say that Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor looked for the same qualities in their students, so we might be slightly similar in some aspects. That does not mean we hang out with Gryffindors. This rivalry has been passed down since the founders' time; Salazar and Godric were the best of friends until an argument turned into a rivalry. They like beating us only slightly less than we like beating them. But, we get along with Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."

"Now, we haven't introduced our house ghost, the Bloody Baron. If he likes you, he'll scare other students for you if need be. Another benefit of being a Slytherin is that Peeves, the resident mischief maker, will never bother you, because the Baron is our house ghost." A dark haired boy with a prefect badge said.

"Now, follow me, and I'll show you to your sleeping quarters." Farley announced.

She led them up a staircase at the side of the room, stopping at the first floor. A long, wide corridor with about 10 doors in it lay before them.

"Each door leads to a small house consisting of a living room for having other Slytherins over with six doors connected to it, each door leading to a bedroom. So each student gets his own bedroom, and six of you share one living room. There's a bathroom in every bedroom, so you don't have to share. Your names are floating by the doors you're supposed to enter. I'll leave you to sort out your own things now." She smiled at them and went up the flight of stairs, presumably to her own room.

The students were standing silently for a moment when Harry walked forward and looked for his room. Soon, others followed. Harry found his name on the third door on the right, along with a few other names.

_Theodore Nott_

_Draco Malfoy_

_Hadrian Hades_

_Daphne Greengrass_

_Lorelei Fay_

_Pansy Parkinson_

Harry pushed the door open and was met with the sight of a large spacious living room with a stylish décor, with tapestries depicting the adventures and achievements of great Slytherins. Harry walked into the room and looked around, satisfied with the level of the furniture. Soon, four others entered the room, and he recognized Malfoy, Nott, Parkinson, and Greengrass from the balls his father held at his manor. The girl chatting with Greengrass, he thought he recognized as the heir of an influential pure-blood family.

"Harry!" Draco saw him and grinned. "We're in the same room!"

The others noticed him and looked at Draco questioningly.

"Hadrian Hades, sole heir of the Hades family. You've probably heard of them by now, they've purchased shares from a lot of famous companies since they moved back to Britain." Draco said while grinning. "Harry, Daphne Greengrass, Theodore Nott, Lorelei Fay, and Pansy Parkinson."

"Hey." Harry said.

"Nice to meet you." Daphne smiled at him.

"You can call me Theo." Theo said while grinning. "And I'll call you Harry."

"Pansy." She offered him a smile.

"Call me Lore." Lorelei studied him interestedly.

"It' pretty late, we should go inside our rooms and pack." Harry said.

"Huh? You're right." Daphne said, looking out the window. "I guess we'll see each other in the morning, then."

"I'll wake you guys up for breakfast if you're not up by then." Pansy said, looking pointedly at Draco.

"I can wake up on time, Pansy." Draco rolled his eyes.

"Good night." Harry said as he turned to walk into his room, closing the door after him.

Harry waved his wands and his things flew out of his backpack and into their proper places in the room.

He placed his backpack beside his bed and jumped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

This was going to be an interesting year.

He grinned and turned around, falling asleep.

* * *

**The welcome lecture is based off Pottermore's welcome letter. Also, Slytherins in this fic are the same as canon says they are. Rowling states on Pottermore that Slytherins, like Ravenclaws, aim to be the best, but the difference between them is that the Slytherins will never betray one of their own or step on each other. And it says most of them are pretty cool and kind to everybody, with the exception of Gryffindors, of course, who hate them right back.**

**Anyways, I've been rambling up there.**

**Bye.**


	9. Routine

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OC's and the plot._

* * *

Harry was spacing out as he was looking outside the window, thinking about how to sneak around the school at night. A disillusionment charm, perhaps?

"Mr. Hades."

It would be good enough in the dark, but what about the sound of their feet, for example? A silencing charm would do, he supposed. He had already bought a lot of girding potions to increase their endurance, allowing them to explore the corridors at night while still remaining at peak condition during the day. Seth could make doppelgängers for them both in case anybody checks on their rooms. Now the only remaining question was where they should start exploring.

"Mr. Hades!" An outraged cry sounded in the deathly quiet classroom.

Harry felt a kick that snapped him out of his stupor and he turned to face Draco, who was looking at him warningly.

Harry felt a stare drilling into the side of his head and turned around slowly, immediately plastering a charming smile on his face.

"Yes, professor?" He asked pleasantly. Maybe he would start by killing her when they finally did attack Hogwarts. After the Potters, of course.

Professor McGonagall's lips were pressed into a thin line, obviously not taken in by his charismatic smile.

"Five points from Slytherin. I expect my students to pay full attention during lessons, especially considering it's your first month here." She reprimanded sternly.

"See to it that it does not repeat itself." She sighed and turned back to teaching the class.

What did they expect Harry to do? Listen to the stupid bullshit he already learned years ago? It was too boring and he just couldn't seem to focus on any lesson.

Harry sighed and resumed thinking about all the possible adventures he could find in this castle. He was beginning to see why his father loved the castle so much, although it was probably for a very different reason.

Now, where to start? Maybe he should ask Seth where he'd want to start. Huh, he'll just meet him after classes. But for now, Harry sighed, back to daydreaming it was.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The greasy haired potions master entered the class, black robes billowing behind him. The class immediately fell silent, some out of fear and others out of respect.

The Gryffindors entered, he spotted Seth walking in and waved him over. Seth walked over with a grin, sliding into the seat next to Harry's with ease. Harry summoned his quill and a piece of parchment.

_Explore the castle after classes?_

_Sure. Can we grab some food first though?_

_Yeah, all this crap is making me hungry. Will granger ever put her hands down? Honestly, it's almost touching the roof._

_Oh come on, she's not that bad. Crabbe and Goyle are looking startled at the onslaught of information._

_I wager they don't even understand what Snape's saying. Pfft. It's a wonder they think at all._

_Anyways, where do you reckon we should start exploring?_

_Let's start from the dungeons and work our way upwards. Snape is done messing with Potter; he's starting the lesson. How well do you think we should do?_

_I think we should split up the subjects between us. I'll be excellent at Charms, History of magic, and Herbology; you take Transfiguration, Potions, and Astronomy. We'll be slightly better than average in subjects the other is good at, and we'll both be good at DADA and flying._

_I love the way you think, you know that?_

_Got it from you._

_Hey, Snape's passing around, I think we should start our stupid potion._

_You get the porcupine quills and snake fangs; I'll get the horned slugs and dried nettle._

_Slugs. Blergh._

By the end of the class, Harry and Seth were one of the only people who brewed it correctly, and Seamus's cauldron exploded and showered his partner, Neville, who had red boils appearing all over his body.

Harry shrugged while Seth looked at him sympathetically and they hopped down from their seats after gathering their things.

"Race you to the Great Hall?" Seth grinned at him.

"You're on." Harry smirked at him.

They took off at a quick pace and stopped at the large doors. Harry had gotten there a second earlier.

"I'll get you one of these days." Seth huffed.

Harry smirked. Board games, chess, video games, guessing games, racing, physical activities, mental games, and any kind of contest at all; Harry had always won. It wasn't that Seth was stupid. Harry was just extremely smart.

They were going to enter but Harry stopped as he remembered something.

"Come with me to the dungeons. I'm going to get something from the dorms."

"Sure."

Since their rendezvous before Hogwarts, Harry and Seth's friendship was stronger than ever.

He had even started giving Seth Parseltongue lessons which Seth, being the prodigy he was (like Harry), had soaked up pretty quickly. However, it was still a little inadequate and gave Harry a good laugh sometimes.

When he had been at the Potters, Harry's existence had been ignored. It was worse than being mistreated, because then there was actually acknowledgement on their part. Harry was like a ghost, they didn't turn when he walked beside them; they never talked to him. In a way, they had shaped Harry to be the person he was. Harry's mind became twisted. The most dangerous thing possible at that moment had happened to him.

He had gotten bored. All the time, he had been searching for entertainment. It had started with planning traps, playing Quidditch, even reading. But that had all stopped being fun after a while, except for when he tried out new, extremely dangerous maneuvers in Quidditch. But eventually, Quidditch just didn't cut it. He had then run away, looking for the next adventure, and oh, did he find one.

It came in the form of a boy. Even as a child, Harry had, somewhere deep inside, recognized that the child was his magical equal, if not slightly superior. However, Harry's knowledge had evened things out.

Seth was _the_ distraction. He always had something to do with him. Harry had always wondered if he would ever get bored while with him, but he buried it deep in his mind. He had waited for the moment he would get bored ever since their first meeting. It still hadn't come. There had been patches of time where they didn't have anything to do, but that persistent feeling hadn't come again.

Other people would consider Harry mentally unhealthy, insane even, but to him, they were the ones who were crazy. How could they live such a _boring_ life?

Harry told Seth to wait while he got something, and Harry raced into the common room.

Daphne, Draco, Lorelei, Pansy and Theo were all sitting around a table when they saw Harry run in. Their eyeballs were going to fall from their sockets as they saw Harry run about. Lorelei recovered in time to shout out to him.

"Hey, Harry! Where are you going?"

Harry turned his head and saw the group of children looking at him questioningly. Ah, the Slytherins. They were so petty and boring. They had somehow gotten it into their heads that Harry was their friend. It might have a little something to do with the fact that Harry had to keep up his act. Harry's hands sometimes itched to shoot a killing curse at them, but he managed. Harry was a pretty good actor.

"I'm going to look around the castle with a friend. Want to come along?" Harry said while smirking.

They gave each other looks. They never knew Harry had a friend besides them. He didn't exactly seem like the friends type. Well, that answered where he had been all those times they were looking for him.

"I want to come." Theo got up from his seat, wanting to meet Seth.

"Count me in." Lorelei grinned at him.

Daphne, Draco, and Pansy had yet to finish their transfiguration essay and so stayed behind.

"Cool."

Harry grabbed a pair of rings he had kept in his trunk since before Hogwarts. He had paid a little visit to Britain's leading magical smith and given him specific instruction on making four rings. They were identical. Thick black bands encrusted with a magnificent assortment of emeralds, diamonds, sapphires and rubies. However, sapphires dominated in Harry's ring and diamonds did in Seth's. The other two rings were identical to the first two, and Harry had made them just in case.

Protective spells had been woven into the very silver as it had been crafted, making it extremely strong and durable. The defensive measures included absorbing low powered spells and slowing down any poison or blood loss, even being able to heal injuries that weren't fatal. Also, nobody but the owner could take it off. However, the only downside was that the ring was powered by magic that was deposited into it beforehand, and had a limit on how much magic you could put in it.

It also had spells that would allow them to find each other; no matter how far away they were, providing it wasn't blocked by a ward. A few other spells were cast on it too, but Harry didn't think they were going to be used any time soon.

It had cost him a considerable amount of money, but it was worth it.

"Let's go." He walked quickly to the door and opened it, startling Seth who was leaning against the wall.

"Finally, thought you'd never come out!" Seth said. "Huh, who are they, Harry?"

"Dorm mates. Lore and Theo, this is Seth." He introduced.

The two Slytherin exchanged a look.

"Harry! You've been hanging out with a Gryffindor!" Theo exclaimed.

"Not that we mind, but you know what the older years are gonna say, right?" Lore said.

"Who cares?" He snorted. "If they have a problem, they can say it to my face."

Harry's fame had spread across the school as the lone heir of the prestigious Hades family, wealthy influential newcomers to the British wizarding scene.

They immediately instilled fear as one of the most ruthless families in their dealings, adding to the fact that they had powerful friends in the right places. Voldemort's cover for his son had worked out perfectly, giving the dark lord himself a new unsuspicious identity to use in normal wizarding Britain while providing a background for Harry. They were quickly working themselves up the food chain and were expected in a matter of months to be at the top.

With the abovementioned influence backing Harry, there was no way the Slytherins, who had always respected power in addition to overlooking mistakes if it was one of their own, would ever even confront Harry about his choice of friends.

They were more likely to warn him about the other Gryffindors' reaction to this friendship. There was still a chance though, Harry was aware of how hate could blind somebody.

On the other hand, even the Gryffindors, with their policy of sticking together, much like Slytherin, could not protest Seth's choice of befriending a Slytherin in addition to Seth having the backing of Damon Potter and the Weasleys, who themselves were respected figures within Gryffindor.

So in effectiveness, everybody's hands were tied and there was nothing they could do about anything Harry or Seth did with their time together.

"If you say so." Theo said, still kind of worried but nodding at Seth. "Anyways, glad to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Seth said politely while grinning.

"Here." Harry threw the ring to him.

Seth caught the ring and looked at it, surprised. Theo and Lore looked at him, surprised. Did he just casually throw a seemingly extremely expensive ring? Theo looked impressed while Lore frowned at him calculatingly.

They had known that Harry's family was rich, but they didn't think they were _that_ rich already. The ring was obviously excellently and skillfully crafted, sporting many precious stones on it. It was a ring worthy of a king.

Harry winked at Seth and held up his own ring.

"It's a friendship ring. It has a lot of protection spells on it." Harry slipped it on his thumb. "No one but the owner can take it off."

Seth threw it into the air and placed his thumb under it so that it slipped on of its own accord.

"Remind me to pay you back." Seth huffed exasperatedly. "You always do this."

"It didn't cost much." Harry rolled his eyes at him. "Honestly, Seth. Consider it pay back for the scroll."

Lore and Theo stood beside each other, glancing at each other looking lost. They felt like they weren't even there until Harry remembered them and said the better head up to eat.

They headed to the Great Hall once more, sitting at the Slytherin table once they arrived.

Some Slytherin glared at Seth; at least until Harry looked dangerously at them right back and they turned their heads away. Harry and Seth piled tons of food on their plates, famished after both skipping breakfast for a training session they scheduled in the morning.

They both excelled in dueling. Seth had more magical power while Harry was more crafty and ingenious with his choice of spells. They had practiced until they lost track of time and realized they were going to be late for their first lesson if they rushed to breakfast now. Harry didn't really care, but Seth was adamant they not be late.

Seth had already disarmed Lore and Theo. Harry almost laughed at how easy it was.

After they were done eating, they walked out of the great hall, heading into the dungeons to start.

After walking in the dungeon for a while, they stopped looking. So far they had found a potions cupboard, a room with a dueling platform in which Harry and Seth glanced at each other silently agreeing to practice there from thereon, and a strange room which had sparkling lights floating in it.

"How do you reckon we find secret passages?" Seth asked.

Harry looked around the passage, his eyes picking up details.

The corridor looked relatively abandoned with no signs of anybody having walked in recently. There were a few portraits here and there, still in near peak condition. In fact, all of the portraits exhibited next to no sign of being touched around the edges, save for one of a cat lying on a chair.

There was a thumb like shape on the edge of the portrait where it had been touched once too many times and apparently quite roughly with no care for the state of the painting. The portrait probably opened into a secret route. Harry grinned.

Person who touched was left-handed, or else the thumb imprint wouldn't be there. Handy to know, really.

Harry would know sooner or later who this other person exploring the castle was. Maybe he could make him divulge the location of other secrets paths.

"Here-"Harry said as he strongly pulled the painting, which swung away to reveal a smooth tunnel that led into a room. The room had strange objects on the walls surface which they realized was for climbing, and a slide coming down from near the ceiling of the room, where Harry saw there was a flat surface with a blank wall.

Their mouths fell wide open.

"Harry! You're a genius! Let's try climbing it!" Seth exclaimed.

It was a fairly easy climb, and they were up in no time.

Theo walked up to the wall at the top and knocked on the surface, trying to see if it was solid. The sound indicated there was something behind, and with a strong push from Lorelei, they found themselves on the Grand Staircase, with hundreds of portraits on the walls and a student here and there, rushing to get to different floors. They quickly got out of the portrait and swung it shut after them, not wanting to attract attention.

The slim man with a long pointy hat gazed at them amusedly.

"You like to adventure, don't you? You'll find there are many secret passages at Hogwarts. "He chuckled at them. "Oh, I remember when I was but a boy, eager to dig for secrets! Good luck, boys! Be sure not to get the little lady with you in trouble, though!"

"Shut up already, geezer." Harry glanced at him disdainfully.

They left the portrait spluttering before they walked down the moving staircases into the Viaduct Courtyard, where students of all houses where hanging out while some played Gobstones.

Sadly, they heard the Clock Tower chime, signaling that their classes were about to begin.

"We have History of Magic followed by Herbology." Seth sighed. "We should get moving if we want to get there in time."

They all moved towards classroom 4F which was located in the first floor, where old professor Binns, possible the most boring teacher in existence, lay waiting for them. Most of the students, including Harry and Seth, had fallen asleep due to Binns' horrible monotonous voice droning on and on. Harry and Seth had tried resisting the hypnotic quality of Binns' voice at first, but at last, the overwhelming urge to close their eyes forced them to succumb to sleep.

At the Herbology classroom, Sprout merely lectured them on the uses of plants and the proper way to take care of them. After an hour, class was over and they were free to do whatever they wanted.

Theo and Lore headed for the Slytherin common rooms while Harry and Seth went to the library to do some homework and search for any books detailing some of the routes in Hogwarts.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry walked into the Slytherin common rooms after dinner, planning to stay there for a while before going to his room taking the parchment Seth had given him, and activating the runes on it to make a doppelgänger who he would command to pretend to sleep. Afterwards, he would cast a disillusionment charm and a silencing charm on himself and head out to meet Seth, who would be waiting for him in their agreed location, in front of a portrait of a blind witch besides the kitchen.

However, what was waiting for him in the Slytherin common rooms was something else. He knew there was a possibility, but he thought it was probably too small.

The Slytherins were forming a crowd with some of them on one side and Daphne, Theo, Draco, Pansy, and Lorelei and some others on the other side.

An older year and Lorelei looked to be in a heated argument about something, which Harry thought was probably him. Harry walked calmly towards them, and Lorelei, noticing him, waved him over with an angry glint in her eyes.

"There he is! If you have any complaints about who he chooses to hang out with, you can say it right now!" she spat venomously at the older boy.

Hmm, maybe he wouldn't kill his annoying year mates after all. Loyalty _was_ useful.

The older boy looked positively angry by now, and turned to Harry with a glare.

"We heard you've been hanging out with a Gryffindor."

Harry raised an eyebrow at him.

"We already told you not to hang out with a Gryffindor!" Another angry person from the crowd shouted. "Are you out of your mind?"

"It's none of your business!" Pansy shouted, red in the face.

"It damn well is! Especially when it's the Weasley ward! You've been hanging out with the Potter kid's friend!"

"This is insulting to the rest of us!"

The boy stepped forward in an attempt to intimidate Harry. Harry, who chewing gum, looked up disdainfully, almost laughing at the boy's terrible attempt at intimidation. He kept his face straight though. This was too much fun.

He had been itching to drop his act for a moment and he wasn't one to turn away a perfectly good opportunity.

"Cat got your tongue? You'd better stay away from that little shit from now on." The boy shouted, mistaking his silence for cowardice.

Harry's eyes shone coldly in the lamp light. Everybody felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere and stiffened slightly. Harry's magic managed to make the place even more freezing than it was.

Harry started closing in on the boy, who seemed to lose some of his confidence. Harry was grinning and blowing a bubble with his chewing gum. He studied the petrified boy for a moment.

Judging by his face, he was a fourth or fifth year, but the boy with the prefect badge behind him was seemingly his friend. So he was a fifth year.

His eyes flicked down to the boy's hand. A family ring. The crest on it signified he was the heir of the… Rosier family? It gets more and more interesting. So he was the son of the late Evan rosier, gold-tier death eater.

He had probably heard of the Hades family and thought that he was better, since his family had been in Britain far longer than Harry's supposed family. His eyes turned to the boy's clothes. He wore it "fashionably" and had quite a number of students behind him, so he was fairly popular among the Slytherins.

Perfect. If he put this mongrel down like the dog he was, he would become an example to others of what would happen to you if you crossed Hadrian Hades.

"So, Evan Rosier's son, are you? I see the urge to die runs in the family." Harry laughed at the enraged glint in the boy's eyes. Harry cracked his neck to the side. Harry feigned thinking. "I estimate you have eight years or so before getting yourself killed. Probably due to your own stupidity, much like your father."

It was finally too much for the simpleton to bear, and he lunged towards Harry, trying to punch him in the face. Brilliant. Now Harry couldn't be blamed for retaliating.

Harry side-stepped him, and the boy couldn't stop his lunge. Harry swung his leg back casually and hit the back of the boy's knees. The fifth-year fell flat on his back with a pained cry.

Harry stood over him, faking a concerned expression as he extended a hand.

"Pathetic. If you're going to fight without using a wand, you should at least know how to." He said in a mocking voice. "Here, let me help you up."

Harry pulled the boy's hand and forcefully brought him to his feet.

Harry tightened his hands on the boy's elbows, making the boy grimace with pain.

Harry looked at the now afraid boy, and sighed. He wasn't interesting anymore.

Harry's mood was soured. He was annoyed more than angry; the boy hadn't even lasted a minute as a distraction. He aimed a precise punch under the boy's chin, knocking him out for a few seconds. He turned to the boy's friends, who were gaping.

"Pick him up." He gestured to the boy's unconscious body, and they scrambled around him helping him stand straight while glaring at Harry but unwilling to fight with him.

"Party's over." He grinned charismatically at the crowd before his anger shone through. "Scram!"

The crowd started to disperse fearfully, whispering among themselves about the clearly insane first year. His year mates stared at him, dumbfounded. Except for Lorelei, who seemed unfazed by the whole affair.

"Ah, cat got your tongue?" She smiled smugly at the boy who was struggling to stand straight, repeating the boy's earlier words to Harry.

Huh, interesting. And Harry loved interesting things. She felt kind of like him, a predator.

But now was not the time. Seth was waiting.

Harry headed to his room, where he took out the piece of parchment Seth gave him. Harry found a mirror, like Seth told him to, and activated the runes, pressing the parchment to the glass. There was a red glow and as he pulled back the parchment, his reflection stepped out of the mirror, awaiting orders as it stared at him.

"Lie on the bed and pretend to be asleep until I'm back."

The doppelgänger nodded and moved to the bed, doing as he asked.

Harry smirked as he tapped his head with his wand, casting a disillusionment charm followed by a quick silencio on himself. He walked out to the common room and waited for an older year to go out and followed him out of the door.

He rushed to the portrait and whispered quietly.

"Seth?"

Seth grinned at Harry although he couldn't see, before connecting their invisibility "bubbles", per se, and the silencing charm so that they could see and hear each other, but no one else could see them or hear them.

"Took you long enough. What held you up?"

Harry remembered the fight at the common rooms and grinned at Seth.

"Just a little detour; I'll tell you about it later."

"Let's go then." Seth said as he ran off, followed closely by Harry.

Harry handed Seth two girding potions, telling him to drink them before doing the same with his two bottles. Harry and Seth felt the extra strength and gave identical grins to each other before starting their night time exploring.

The Slytherins had learned a very valuable lesson that day.

Never mess with Harry. His sudden mood changes can be, as they found, extremely unpleasant.

* * *

The idea of him winning everything actually comes from my cousin. We played Ludo seven times in a row, and she won every single time. Same thing with Uno and Monopoly. She never loses! And it's not just me, she played against three others and won too. Very frustrating, and the most puzzling thing of all is that she's not cheating! Actually, I tried to cheat and I still didn't win. It's a running joke between us now; she's a "luck monster".

See ya, have to sleep.


	10. Hallowe'en

_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot._

* * *

_**~Hallowe'en~**_

It was a fresh, sunny, morning. Several clouds were scattered in the sky and warm rays of sunlight balanced the chill given by the cool breeze. Madam Hooch, the flying teacher, seemed to think it was an excellent day to have their first class on riding a broom.

Harry disagreed. Wholeheartedly.

Flying was boring. He had had enough of it for the six years he had lived with the Potters. Naturally, this meant he was in a bad mood. His mood lightened though when he discovered it was with the Gryffindors. It was bad enough trying not to fall asleep on his hands without being stuck with his utterly dull dorm mates.

She had ordered them to make two lines facing each other, and place their brooms on the floor beside them. Harry looked at the pathetic brooms provided by the school. A dusty feeble thing with twigs sticking out at several angles.

Surely the best school of wizardry could afford better brooms.

Hooch told them to place their hands over the broom and say "up!", and that they did.

Harry's broom leapt to his hands, as did Seth's, but they were one of the few that did. Damon Potter's broom did it on the first try, though Granger seemed to be having a hard time.

Harry figured he would play a little, spice things up.

Grinning, he slipped his wand out of its holster and aimed it discreetly at Weasley's broom, muttering a quick spell.

The broom leapt of the floor and smashed into Ron's nose, making him howl with pain. A bruise was starting to form on his nose, but it wasn't broken.

Seth glanced at Harry reproachfully, although his lips were twitching. Lorelei had also seen him, and seemed to be fighting a smirk. He winked at her with a smirk on his face.

Hooch started reprimanding Ron on his wrong grip, before turning to tell them how to mount their brooms.

Harry and Seth managed perfectly, but Longbottom had apparently never ridden a broom. He couldn't control his broom and it flew away and so he managed to break his wrist in the space of one minute.

Hooch told them to wait while she took him to the infirmary.

Malfoy had apparently found some trouble to make, and scooped Longbottom's Rememberall from the ground, which Potter apparently had a problem with.

Well, this was getting interesting, Harry peered at them.

Malfoy had taken off with the ball and Potter, who surprisingly was good at flying, was right behind him.

"Well, come on. Let's go after them." Harry could smell trouble, and did he love it.

Seth hopped on his broom, shooting into the air right after Harry.

Harry hooked his feet around his broom and did a one-eighty, hanging upside down. Seth was balancing himself while standing on his broom. They both were looking over interestedly at Potter's chase. Malfoy had thrown the Rememberall and Potter had deemed it worthy to travel at an angle almost perpendicular to the ground to catch it.

Harry and Seth raced with their brooms to catch a glimpse of what was happening, stopping only when they could see it in perfect detail.

What an idiot. There was a thin line between bravery and stupidity, and he was currently crossing it by miles.

The students below were gaping at them, Malfoy, and Potter. Granger was looking especially panicked, shouting for Potter and Seth to come down, saying they'd lose house points.

They all ignored her, with Harry and Seth looking curiously at Potter's attempt to catch the ball.

Damon Potter caught the Rememberall before tumbling to the ground and a great shout emanated from behind them.

"CHILDREN!" McGonagall shouted out furiously. "Get down here this instant!"

Snape was trailing behind her, sneering at Potter.

Harry scowled at her. Did she have to come and ruin the moment?

Malfoy and Potter were probably going to continue their fight, and she had to come and interrupt it!

Harry sulked as Seth dragged him back to the ground and eyed her angrily. He was going to line up something very special for her later on.

The three of them were standing together while she lectured them.

"I see you have already started making trouble, Potter. Just can't resist getting attention, can you?" Snape sneered at Damon.

Damon scowled at him, protesting to McGonagall.

"Professor-" He started.

"-Silence, Potter. Follow me now." She said as she walked into the castle.

Potter was looking a bit nervous, while Harry walked with a bored look on his face and his hands folded behind his head, and Seth was walking with his usual polite expression.

She stopped at a classroom once she got into the school and opened the door.

"Pardon, Professor, but may I borrow Wood and Flint for a moment?"

Two tall, burly boys came out of the classroom, looking questioningly at their respective head of house.

She took them to a large classroom, where Harry and Seth hopped onto a desk to sit down.

She looked at the disapprovingly but didn't say anything.

Flint turned to Snape and asked him about what was going on.

"I found you a new chaser." Snape smirked in a superior fashion.

Harry raised his eyebrows while peering over at McGonagall, who seemed to be telling the Gryffindor boy the same thing. Well, this could be interesting. Maybe he wouldn't kill her after all.

"A new chaser?" Flint said, astonished. "Is he any good?"

"Very. He has some quite extraordinary moves." Snape replied.

"Well, this is good news!" Flint grinned happily. "You do know the rules, right?"

Harry stared at him in such a manner that Flint realized how stupid his question was.

"Er, well, you'll have to get a broom though, the school brooms are terrible." Flint said, scratching the back of his head.

"I get it. A nimbus two thousand should do, right?" Harry asked in a tone which made it clear he didn't need an answer. Harry tried to peer around him at Seth.

"I expect you to practice hard, Mr. Hades, or I might just give you detention instead of this." Snape said while looking at him expectantly.

"Sure, sure." Harry brushed him off as he hopped off the table and walked near Seth, who looked at him excitedly.

"Harry, we can play against each other!" Seth grinned at him.

Harry smirked at him.

"I'll win, you just wait and see."

"This time, I'll definitely win!" Seth said stubbornly.

"Sure, Seth. Keep telling yourself that." Harry laughed out loud.

Snape and Flint stood by each other, looking at the tall 9-year old laughing with the Gryffindor.

The same thing was running through both their minds.

Were they just… ignored?

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Hurry up, Seth!" Harry whispered harshly as he ran away.

"I _am_ running!" Seth exclaimed while sprinted quickly.

Mrs. Norris had been following them for the last five minutes, with Filch following her, looking like a hound smelling a scent.

While Harry did not care about getting caught, he definitely did not fancy getting detention. Detention was one boring thing he could do without.

Finally, they passed Peeves trying to make a prank, clearly.

Peeves shrieked in glee at the sight of them, obviously trying to get them caught.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" He shouted. "QUICKLY!"

Apparently, Peeves could stare through disillusionment charms. Perfect.

"Peeves, you wouldn't want the Bloody Baron to know about this would you?" Harry smirked at him. "Because I have half a mind to tell him tomorrow."

"What? No, of course not!" Peeves laughed nervously. "I wasn't going to tell him anyway! Honest!"

Harry rolled his eyes and ran towards the door at the end of the corridor, Seth closely behind.

He slammed into the door, which turned out to be locked. He could always use more of his strength and break it open but that didn't exactly sound as discreet as he needed. An _Alohomora_ would have to do.

He quickly opened the door and shut it after he and Seth got in.

"Well, that was close!" Seth panted as he wiped sweat off his forehead.

"You can say that again." Harry leaned against the door, eyes closed as he tried to catch his breath.

"At least- Woah!" Seth exclaimed at something.

Harry opened his eyes to find a giant, monstrous, three headed dog.

Charming.

"I'm going to get that stupid cat one day!" Harry scowled.

"How about we head back now?" Seth suggested, looking calculatedly at the monster in front of them.

"Good idea." Harry said as he put an ear on the door and deemed it safe.

"We should research it in the library." Harry said thoughtfully once they got out.

"Let's just get back to our rooms for now." Seth was still looking around cautiously for Filch.

"Let's." Harry agreed.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was Hallowe'en. Time had passed quickly at Hogwarts, and thankfully, it hadn't been boring. If it did, Harry would just drop out and go back to Voldemort, participate in a raid (who knows, it could be fun!), and then go under so no one will find him. He would, of course, drag Seth along.

He already had an idea about what to do with his summer, actually. He would take Seth and go on a tour across the muggle world. He would also get those mobiles muggles talked with at the orphanage. They were very convenient, and Harry didn't really care if it was muggle technology.

Harry didn't care if someone was a pure-blood, half-blood, muggle-born, or muggle. He didn't care what race they were or what color. He only cared if they were interesting. Could they provide a distraction? If so, then yes, Harry liked them very much. Although it was probably not a very good thing if you caught Harry's attention.

For now, though, Harry would settle for eating. A lot.

It was the Hallowe'en feast, and Harry and Seth were moving through the corridors towards the Great Hall. They stuffed their stomachs full of food, Harry got a lollipop from his backpack, opened it and put it into his mouth, and they were about to get up before-

"TROLL!" A great shout came from the large doors. "Troll in the dungeons! Just thought you ought to know."

Quirrell, the most spineless teacher known to man, fainted on the floor.

Quirrell was actually a man Voldemort hired to work at Hogwarts. Harry would have to find out sooner or later what the man was here for. Obviously causing trouble.

Harry and Seth's eyes met, and they grinned at each other, the same idea passing through their mind.

They took off in the confusion, running towards the dungeons. The trail left wasn't exactly the definition of subtle, and they found it in no time.

Sadly, though, it seemed like Damon Potter and Ron Weasley had had the same idea.

"Let's help them!" Seth shouted out before running in.

It was always like this really. Harry would have liked to think he ropes Seth behind him, but Seth always drags Harry along. Honestly, Seth could have sat back and enjoyed the trouble unfolding before his eyes for a few seconds before helping, but no, he had to rush in and play the hero.

He was going to get himself killed one of these days if Harry wasn't around him to stave off death.

Weasley and Potter were trying to knock it out, and Potter stuck his wand up the troll's nose.

Harry sighed and flicked his wrists. His wand shot into his hands and he aimed it at the troll's club. Seth had jumped on its back and started punching. Due to the body strengthening magic Harry taught him, it caused a little damage, although not nearly as much as it would have if Harry did it.

Harry cast a simple _Wingardium Leviosa_ on the club and forcefully flicked his wand down. The club responded and smacked the troll in the center of the head making it topple over unconscious and crash into the sinks.

Harry leaned against the door frame casually, both hands in pocket and one foot on the frame behind him. He moved the lollipop inside his mouth from cheek to cheek before breaking it into pieces and throwing away the stick.

"Is it dead?" Granger asked nervously.

"No. knocked out, probably." Damon panted while holding his stomach.

"It better be." Seth gasped out as he tried to catch his breath from the fall off the troll's back.

Harry sighed and moved into the bathroom, taking care not to dirty his clothes.

"Seriously, Seth, you could have waited until I knocked it out before charging in." Harry said exasperatedly.

"Sorry." Seth laughed while still trying to breathe in from his place on the floor.

Harry walked over to him and extended a hand, which Seth took and pulled himself up.

He brushed the dirt off his clothes as he looked at the others.

"Are you guys okay?" He asked with a smile.

"Yeah. Thanks Seth." Damon Potter offered a friendly smile before he stood up. He took his wands out of the troll's nose with a disgusted noise and a green tinge to his face. "Is that troll bogies?"

Loud footsteps sounded in the corridor. They had visitors.

Teachers appeared at the door frame, looking stunned at the sight before them.

"What are you doing here?" McGonagall said with her glasses flashing furiously.

"I would've thought it was obvious." Harry said not so politely.

"Sorry, he meant we were trying to help them." Seth smiled at her, trying to make up for Harry's rudeness.

"I-it was me, professor." Granger said tentatively. "I thought I could beat the troll, but it almost killed me when the four of them came in. Hades knocked it out with its own club."

"Miss Granger! That was a very foolish thing to do!" She reprimanded before sighing. "But I suppose it is good none of you were injured. Ten points from Gryffindor."

She then looked at them sternly.

"And you four… Although it wasn't very smart of you, is very noteworthy that first years could defeat a mountain troll. Five points each to your respective houses. Mr. Hades, you get an extra five points for knocking it out."

They all traded happy grins while Harry scratched the back of his head. He led the group out of the bathroom and into the corridor.

"Well, that was fun." He said.

"Fun?" Weasley said incredulously. "_Fun?_"

Good lord. Well, there you go. Another moron with a penchant for dull routines.

"You heard me." Harry rolled his eyes before turning around and walking backwards. "See ya, Seth."

He gave a mock salute and walked away, with one hand holding his backpack strap.

That was an interesting day. See, this is exactly why Harry was never bored with Seth. When they were together, trouble popped up all over.

Harry smirked as he ran into his common room and took a nap before it was time for looking around the castle.

* * *

3 o'clock here. Going to school in three hours and still didn't sleep. Oh god, I'm screwed. But honestly, I can't bring myself to care. Oh well.

Thanks for all your reviews and favs.

Also, I wanted to apologize to you if the changes I had made in this story let you down, but I think this is more my style than it the previous one. I was just modeling it on another fic. I realized that, and started rewriting it. I also apologize sincerely to the author of that fic, Oceanbreeze7.

So while I am sorry if you are disappointed, I know it was the right thing to do.

Thank you for your support so far.

Going off to sleep now. Bye.


	11. Christmas Break

_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot._

To make it clear again, Harry and Seth and Damon are nine year old. However, the rest of the Hogwarts students are ten year olds. The solution I found to this is that I moved all of their birthdays one year back, so they are one year older than Seth, Harry, and Damon.

Yes, Damon is exceptionally gifted, however, obviously not as much as Harry and Seth are.

* * *

_**~Christmas Break~**_

Harry had been sleeping in class again, when he was assigned detention by McGonagall for his repeated ignoring of school rules, which dictated, weirdly enough for Harry, that you could not sleep in class. Who wrote these rules anyways?

Whatever. It was the day before first Quidditch match, and Harry didn't even want to play anymore. It turned out that they wouldn't actually let Seth play because they already had more experienced chasers while their seeker was horrible, which is why Damon Potter was going to be their new seeker.

When Harry heard this, he naturally headed to Snape's office and stated in a very decisive and final voice that he would not play in the upcoming Quidditch match.

Snape had been outraged. He had threatened Harry with detention.

Harry had looked him in the eyes and said in a smooth voice:

"Detention? Sure."

You see, Harry really hated boring stuff. He really, really, did. But what Harry hated even more than that was losing, and if he gave in to Snape's lame "threats", it would, for him at least, count as a loss. And he hated losing.

Perhaps it was because as a child, Damon had eliminated Harry from the contest that was earning their parents affection from the beginning. Actually, scratch that, it was just an excuse Harry liked to use.

It was actually his pride. Harry hated damaging his pride in any form or way. It was probably a weakness his enemies could use to trap him, but therein lay the issue. Harry would, after getting stuck in the trap, consider it a game, and he would definitely not lose. Harry would be the first to admit that he had too much pride, and that was the way he liked it. Stubbornness, pride, and an unwillingness to lose in anything at all made a very dangerous mixture. His pride just wouldn't allow him to lose.

And his pride certainly won't let him cave in to Snape.

"I already said I won't play, right? Give it up already." Harry said, bored, by this time.

Snape sneered at him unpleasantly.

"Hades, report in for detention at nine." He spat out, clearly miffed at having his offer rejected.

Students _wished_ they could enter the Quidditch team on their first year and he just turned it down!

Harry didn't bother to respond, standing up and folding hi hands behind his neck before walking out with a yawn.

Merlin, was Snape persistent!

It was a Saturday, so Harry didn't have any classes to attend. He walked to the Viaduct courtyard, spotting Seth sitting around with Damon Potter and hid friends.

Harry walked over to them and sat down beside Seth. He really felt like sleeping right now. Maybe they should postpone further exploring till later on. He didn't really need it because of the girding potions, but he liked to do it all the same.

"What did Snape want?" Seth asked him when he sat down.

"He was trying to convince me to play in tomorrow's match." Harry said while twirling his wand, clearly unwilling to participate.

"You're not playing?" Damon's eyebrow's shot up, something like disappointment in his eyes. "But you were great on your broom!"

"It's boring," Harry said while closing his eyes and leaning back, "and Seth is not even playing."

"Why shouldn't you play if he's not playing?" Damon asked, puzzled. "Everybody likes Quidditch."

"Then it's about time you met someone who doesn't." Harry was suddenly in a bad mood. Seeing his twin brought back the memories from so long ago. He stood up and walked away.

"Huh? Wait up, Harry!" Seth stood up and turned around to the Gryffindors with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, he can be a little moody sometimes. I'll see you guys later."

Seth took after the Slytherin and fell into pace beside him, talking with him happily.

The trio stared after him.

"That Hades is such a git." Ron said with a snort, jealousy written all over his face.

"He's not that bad…" Hermione said with a slightly pink tinge to her cheeks. "He did help us after all."

"Hmm? Come on, he's okay, Ron." Damon, who liked to irritate Harry on purpose for some reason he didn't know, said while ginning.

"Yeah, right. He probably only saved us to get points for Slytherin." Ron said.

"Let's play Gobstones." Damon changed the focus of the conversation.

"Oh no." Ron groaned. "There he goes again. You always win, Damon!"

"Try it. Maybe this time, you'll win." Damon smirked at him.

"What am I going to do with you two?" Hermione huffed.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry was walking ahead of Seth, who was trailing behind and staring at Harry's back worriedly.

Seth caught up with Harry, and turned to him.

"Are you okay?" Seth said, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Yeah." Harry grinned as his eyes were pinned determinedly forward.

Seth felt a pang in his heart. Sometimes, Harry withdrew into a sort of shell, and Seth, staring at his back, always felt sad. Seth's footsteps faltered and he watched Harry from behind.

Harry was just walking, and yet he seemed so… lonely. Seth felt a twinge of powerlessness mixed with sadness. Why did he look so lonely? Seth knew there was something in Harry's past he didn't like to share, and the best he could do was pull him back out of his shell.

"Do you remember when you found me at the orphanage?" Seth smiled melancholically. "I was surrounded by a couple kids. I wasn't going to hold up for much longer, but then you came and scared them off."

Harry stopped walking but still didn't turn around.

Seth laughed as he remembered the scene and turned his eyes to the ceiling in reminiscing.

"It was my first time. It was the first time anybody had stuck up for me." He said with a wide grin. "And since then, well, you've gotten me out of a lot of trouble too. I just can't seem to help falling in problems, huh?" Seth laughed again.

"But you know, Harry. I'm really happy I can be beside you. I… am really glad I met you." Seth grinned before walking in front of Harry.

"Why do you always say such embarrassing things?" Harry said with his fringe hiding his face.

"What's so embarrassing about it? It's what I really feel." Seth said, looking back over his shoulder with a smile and resumed walking.

Harry had a slightly embarrassed blush on his face and smiled a bit awkwardly to himself.

Wasn't it the other way around? It was him. Harry was the one who was really glad he met Seth.

"Thanks." Harry called out to Seth before starting to walk forward again.

Seth knew what Harry was thanking him for, and just grinned back at him in response.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

They walked around the fourth floor, both now in a good mood and ready to explore. They had walked into an unused classroom which looked like it hadn't been used since, well, forever.

A large mirror which looked out of place was in the center of the room. Harry looked at it curiously. There was an inscription written on the frame.

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

Harry stared at the letters, mind working through the details. They were obviously mirrored, given that they were _on_ one. He decoded the sentence only to find what it meant was:

I show not your face but your heart's desire.

Harry's eyes widened. Could it be? It was a magical mirror.

"What's taking you so long?" Seth called from the door.

"Just a second." Harry replied.

It shows your heart's deepest desire, then?

Harry had an urge to look into it and was immediately alarmed. Did he even want to know his heart's most secret wish? It was definitely not healthy. This mirror was a trap for weaker men. Was he really so sure he wouldn't be ensnared too?

He almost lowered his eyes to look at it-

"-Did you find anything?" Seth asked.

Harry turned around, looking at Seth who was fidgeting impatiently at the door. It was extremely hard to deny himself a tiny look. Just a tiny look, his mind whispered. And yet he knew that that was how most things started. He might regret not looking into it in the future, but for now…

"It's nothing, I just though I saw something." He said as walked back out of the room without looking back at the mirror.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Christmas break had passed quickly, and Harry and Seth soon found themselves ten weeks from exams.

Harry and Seth had stopped organizing which parts to explore first and started just randomly picking parts of the tower to search. This night had them looking around the tallest tower in Hogwarts. It had been Harry's pick this time, and his choice did not disappoint.

They were at the top of the tower, looking at the view when they saw two Gryffindors come up the stairs laughing with a crate between them.

What in the world?

Harry had definitely picked a good spot. He hoped they got caught. Oh he so loved watching trouble unfold.

He looked at Seth and put a finger on his lips while smirking. Seth nodded and looked curiously at them.

A few minutes later, a few figures on broomsticks landed on the tower and Damon ran over to them with the crate.

Apparently, they were the eldest Weasley's friends, and they came up to pick up a… dragon? Harry looked keenly at them, interest in his eyes.

They had devised a way to carry the crate between them and had flown off after shaking hands with the Gryffindors. Hermione and Damon were happily talking about how Malfoy got detention. Ironically enough, as soon as they opened the door leading to the staircase, Filch's wrinkled face stared at them gleefully.

"Well, what do we have here? Students out of bed! Well, this is trouble." He said gleefully, almost jumping with joy.

Harry stared at them with an amused smirk. Detention for all their troubles.

He followed them with Seth close behind to beside the door of McGonagall's study, where she was assigning detention to Malfoy, Damon, Neville, and Hermione. They had all lost 50 points each, and were to go into the forbidden forest as punishment.

Harry grinned, Ah, how good it was to be so advanced I magic. It meant that they would never catch him or Seth. Seth was listening to them sympathetically, though.

"Well, maybe we should pay them a little visit on their detention." Harry suggested.

Seth seemed to be considering the idea but Harry didn't give him time to think before putting a hand on his shoulder and leading him away from the study. They were about to be led out, and it wouldn't exactly be pleasant for them to suddenly bump into Harry and Seth to find that two _more_ students were roaming around at night.

"Anyways, you'd better head to bed about now, before they go back to your dorms." Harry pushed him towards the Gryffindor dorms before turning with a wink in the direction of the dungeons. "Catch you later."

This would be interesting. He would give them a right scare in the forbidden forest.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was a week from exams, and Harry and Seth were probably the only ones in the whole school who weren't preparing for them, in any sense of the word. Their teachers didn't say anything about that because they had witnessed already what the boys could do in class. They could perform all the spells correctly on their first try, and sometimes they did things with their wands that first years shouldn't have learned yet.

Of course, Harry and Seth's agreement on dividing the subjects between them went right down the drain as they both hated to lose. They were equally good at everything which made competing with each other rather difficult.

The only thing that Harry sucked at was dealing with animals, which were always afraid of him. It was probably because their instincts were warning them about him. Fortunately though, it wasn't included in the core classes. Seth's weak subject was Herbology, which, unfortunately for him, _was_ included.

It was Harry's luck at work again, ensuring he would win. Harry had the devil's luck, you could say, and it wasn't helped by the fact that he was also extremely intelligent, smart enough to get out of trouble.

Harry also remembered the giant dog. He had forgotten over the year due to other stuff but he was curious about what it was guarding, so he sent a letter to Voldemort asking him about it. He expected the reply to arrive tomorrow morning or so.

But for today, he would settle for looking around the forbidden forest and scaring the moonlight out of the Gryffindors, and maybe even Malfoy.

As soon as curfew was over, he waited in the forbidden forest with Seth. Harry was currently lying on a thick branch, waiting for them to arrive.

"Harry."

"…"

"Harry!"

"What is it?" Harry sighed. When were they going to come?

"I'm bored." Seth called out from below.

Harry thought for a moment.

"I know. You can go explore the forest while I wait for them. When you get bored looking around, just use the ring to let me know where you are." Harry suggested. "You can take the right side and I'll take the left."

"Okay. Let's meet up in… an hour?" Seth said with questioning tone.

"Sure."

Harry hopped off the branch and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Ready, set, and go!" He turned with a smirk and ran into the dark expanse filled by trees.

Harry wandered around. He found a few species of snakes, mushrooms, trees, and some birds flying around. It wasn't as fun as he thought it would be.

At least that's what he thought until he saw Malfoy and Damon come with fang. Harry grinned and ducked under a trunk. He shifted his body into its "shadow" state and flew over the trees, stopping a few steps ahead of them.

They still hadn't noticed him yet, and they were looking around cautiously. Harry repressed a laugh and started making weird noises, like a beast that was sniffing around for food.

Malfoy's startled scream tore through the forest, and Harry started moving in quick short steps towards them, making hungry animal noises that threatened to turn into loud laughs.

Malfoy bolted with fang and Damon looked at him with alarmed eyes, stumbling back. Unfortunately, Harry felt his ring activate, signaling the end of the hour. He sighed inwardly and flew behind a tree, shifting back to normal. He could hear hooves approaching as he twisted the ring on his thumb once. He was immediately transported into the other side of the forest, and Seth was waiting for him.

"Did you find anything?" Seth asked.

"I got Potter and Malfoy; gave them a good scare." Harry cracked up again as he remembered their faces.

"Merlin, Harry, no wonder I heard Malfoy scream at the top of his lungs." Seth sighed at his friend's mischievousness.

"Bit of a chicken, isn't he?" Harry laughed again. "You should've seen how he ran!"

They headed back to the castle through the dark night air. Harry told Seth about the letter he sent to his father and they agreed to explore the room once the reply arrived. After a few minutes, they both headed towards their rooms, each feeling excited at the prospect of another adventure.

* * *

Well, that's that. I think I'll take a break for a while.


	12. The Philosopher's Stone

_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot._

I did say I would take a break, but I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm turning into an insomniac. Hopefully, now I'll really take a break instead of just saying I will.

* * *

_**~The Philosopher's Stone~**_

It was breakfast, and the usual owls arrived in a flurry. Aria swooped down and threw his father's reply on the table before flying away again quickly and going to the owlery.

Harry picked up the letter and started to open it. He broke the blood red wax seal and took out the piece of parchment inside.

_It seems like you have already started looking for trouble at Hogwarts. The third floor corridor contains a series of puzzles or challenges; whatever your professors can conjure, designed to protect a certain important object._

_The philosopher's stone is being held at Hogwarts. Although this may be pointless to say, knowing you, do try to be careful and don't get caught. Quirrell has been trying to get in for a while now, but he was waiting for the right opportunity. I have heard that Dumbledore is away, and he will probably try to get into the room any day now._

_I obviously don't need the philosopher's stone, so if you manage to acquire it, you may keep it to yourself._

_I repeat, Kieran, be careful._

_-LV_

Harry read the spidery scrawl and grinned. He would get the philosopher's stone!

He hopped off his seat and stuffed the letter in his pockets. He would burn it later.

"Where are you going, Harry?" Draco called out, surprised.

"Library." Harry replied offhandedly.

The Slytherins stared at each other and shrugged.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry walked into the Hogwarts library and looked around for Seth. He spotted him at a table and took a seat near him.

"I got the letter from father." Harry grinned. "He says that the dog is guarding the philosopher's stone!"

Understanding shone in Seth's wide eyes.

"No way!" He exclaimed in a hushed whisper. "They hid it in _here_?"

"Well, how were they supposed to know I'm here?" Harry smirked predatorily. "We're going tonight."

Seth laughed excitedly, happy at the prospect of finally checking the hallway out.

"No noise in the library!" A screech came from near the entrance.

"Shut up, old hag!" Harry said before casting an invisibility charm on him and Seth.

An outraged cry came from the librarian and she stomped over to where the voice had come from, finding no one there.

She paled and started muttering under her breath.

"Peeves again… One day, one day soon…" She grumbled sourly.

Harry snickered and waved his wand at a bookshelf, causing all the books to fall out and another shriek to fill the room.

"Stop it, Harry." Seth pushed him with an apologetic look at her, even though she couldn't see him.

"Fine, fine." He grinned.

They walked out of the library, hearing the bell signifying the start of class.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was night, and they could finally go into the forbidden third floor corridor.

Harry had snuck out of the Slytherin dorms with his backpack, and rushed to the corridor's entrance where Seth was waiting for him.

"Wait a moment." Harry said. "I need to cast a spell on you first."

"Why?" Seth asked while staring at him questioningly.

"you're going to have to change your faces, obviously. What if we get caught?" Harry said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh… I forgot about that." Seth grinned sheepishly.

"Which is why you always lose." Harry said while smirking smugly. "You don't think things through."

"It is not!" Seth said sullenly before turning an accusing finger on Harry. "You just have too much luck, that's all."

"Whatever makes you happy." Harry said with a laugh before taking out his wand.

Harry changed Seth's appearance to that of a slightly short 11 year old with black hair and grey eyes and transfigured both of their robes into plain black.

The spell Harry cast on himself was a bit more complicated. It didn't exactly prevent people from remembering his face; the person would know that Harry had the same face as their classmate known as Hadrian hades, but the spell wouldn't allow them to connect the dots and reach the conclusion that the person before them is Harry.

The spell could only be broken if Harry himself reveals his identity or if the person sees undeniable proof that leaves absolutely no place for doubts about who he is.

This spell was a godsend for Harry, who hated glamours. Glamours could flicker or even fail if the caster loses his temper or concentration, which happened to Harry often enough for it to be a serious issue.

He also cast it on Seth just to be safe. One could never be too prepared.

"Are you ready?" He asked Seth.

Seth nodded and they both pushed the corridor entrance open to find… a soundly sleeping three headed dog with an instrument hanging in the air charmed to make music.

How anti-climactic.

Harry was annoyed. So Quirrell was already in. Oh well.

"Huh, I guess someone must've come in before us." Seth said as he looked at the violin playing.

"Well, let's go then." Harry sighed with disappointment.

He walked over to the dog, which was snoring loudly and looking like it wouldn't wake up even if someone dropped it from a twelve story high building. Harry pushed the large monster away from the trapdoor and pulled it open.

Seth peered into the dark hole, trying to see through the darkness.

"Well, what do you think is down there?" Harry asked him.

"Only one way to find out." Seth grinned as he jumped down into the black depths of the trapdoor.

Harry sighed. There he goes again, no planning at all.

The three headed dog issued a particularly loud snore which almost popped Harry's eardrums, and Harry, looking at it with annoyance, kicked it right in the behind, causing it to slide one foot forward.

The dog, however, kept sleeping soundly and looked as if the hit didn't harm it at all, and Harry scowled at it and gave it one more just for good measure.

Harry peered into the hole, looking for any signs of Seth.

"Haaaarrryyyyyyyy!" A loud shout came out of the hole.

Harry, alarmed, immediately dove through the darkness, and landed on a soft, cold surface.

Harry could see what the problem was now. A plant was tightly coiled around Seth's limbs and had already started doing so to Harry.

Harry was startled for a moment before regaining his cool.

Right. Concentrate.

He studied the plant for a moment before realizing it was a devil's snare. He forced his body to relax and go limp, before squinting to find Seth.

"Seth! Stop moving! It's a devil's snare!"

Seth stopped struggling although he was still stiff, and he grunted as the plant coiled tighter around his neck.

After Harry stopped moving completely, he waited for a moment before flicking his wrists in a quick, sharp movement. His wand shot into his hand from its holster and he muttered a quick _Incendio_.

A bright blue flame shot out of the tip of his wand and the plant started to retreat to avoid the warm light given by the flare.

"Whew!" Seth exhaled. "Merlin, I hate plants!"

Harry stood up and grinned at Seth as he dusted his clothes off.

"You looked really cool there, getting strangled by a plant." He smirked at him smugly.

One minute and a punch later, Harry was sporting a large bump on the back of his head.

"You didn't have to hit me that hard." He sulked. "That hurt, you know."

Seth ignored him as he walked through the stone passageway.

As they walked through the damp cold corridor, the sound of many wings cutting through the air reached Seth's keen ears.

"Can you hear that?" Seth asked.

"Eh? Hear what?" Harry replied.

"Hurry up!" Seth said as he ran towards the end of the hallway.

Harry sprinted after him and into a large room, filled with what seemed to be… flying keys!

"What are those for?" Seth exclaimed.

Harry studied the place, finding a door at the other side of the room.

"Come on." Harry said over his back as he ran to the other side of the room.

The door was large and made out of wood, and Harry studied the handle for a moment. It was made out of silver and the keyhole was large. A large, silver key then.

"We have to find the key." Harry explained to him spotting a few old brooms propped against the wall. "There! Let's take a broom and start looking. The key is big and silver and probably pretty old. First one to get it wins. On 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and… go!"

They flew up on their brooms and Harry shot straight up to observe from a bird's eye point of view.

His eyes flicked all over the place, searching for the key. He moved around the room but his eyes still hadn't caught on to it yet. Where was it? Where is it hiding? Where? His eyes were still searching, left, right, left, right.

There!

Harry shot forward at the same time Seth spotted the key, and they were now getting closer and closer to the key.

Harry tipped forward, increasing his speed more and more, even though it was probably dangerous. Seth seemed to notice that and his eyes widened. They were going to collide, both of them realized too late.

Harry realized Seth was pulling up his broom in an effort to slow down and smirked internally. Harry pulled up his broom but kept his eyes on the key and just as his hands were going to close around it, they collided and fell to the floor in a heap.

"Ouch! That hurt." Seth rubbed his head.

They hadn't sustained much damage because of their body strengthening magic, but they were still kind of sore.

Harry gagged and put a hand to his mouth as he fell down on all four.

"Harry? Harry! Are you okay?" Seth slapped Harry's back with all his power-

-Causing a silver key to fall out of Harry's mouth and into his hands, and Harry breathed in deeply to avoid vomiting on the floor.

"You almost ate the key!" Seth looked at him disapprovingly. "How were you going to get the philosopher's stone if you choked on a _key_?"

"It was an accident." Harry croaked as he cleared his throat.

That was horrible!

Now one of the key's wings was crumpled, and it was disgustingly dripping.

"_Scourgify_." Harry aimed his wand at the key.

The spell cleaned the key and Harry stood up with it in his hands and stood triumphantly with his hands on his hips.

"I won!" He gave a loud, almost maniac laugh and fell down to the floor as Seth gave another punch to his head.

"You can be really stupid sometimes." Seth sighed as he picked the key from Harry's hands and headed to the door.

Harry sullenly held his head as he walked behind Seth. He was just a sore loser!

Seth opened the door and stopped in his tracks as he took in the sight in front of him.

There was a giant chess set in the room.

Harry looked over his shoulder at the set, and grinned as he pushed past him.

"This will be easy." He smirked. "You take the castle's place, and I'll be a bishop."

They got into their positions and the game started.

"Are you sure about this?" Seth asked hesitantly. "We could just, I don't know, fight our way over."

"It's more fun this way." Harry grinned.

5 minutes later, the king's crown was at Harry's feet, and he stared with an annoyed face at the chess pieces. That had been too easy, and he almost kicked one of them in his irritated anger.

He moved forward to the door with Seth in tow, kicking it open with his feet.

There was a dead troll on the floor, and the smell hit them full on. Harry swallowed in disgust though Seth had it worse because of his sensitive nose. His face turned green at the foul smell entered his nostrils.

"Well, at least we don't have to fight it again?" Harry managed to say.

He had already fought one, and fighting another one was just boring.

They ran hurriedly to the other side of the room and opened the door, only to find a table with a bunch of crystal vials on it.

There was a roll of paper on the paper and Harry seized it and began to read.

As soon as he finished reading he looked at the table and found that the bottle they needed had only about a gulp left.

Well, that wouldn't be enough for both of them.

Harry scratched the back of his head as he thought about what to do, until he heard a large "_crack!" _followed by the sound of an extremely heavy object falling to the ground. Harry raised his eyes slowly to see that Seth had punched through the wall, which now had a very large hole in it.

Well, that also worked, he supposed.

They ran through the hole to find a very startled Quirrell looking over at them in surprise.

"Well what do we have here?" Quirrell said as he smirked nastily. "Two children out of bed. I don't recognize you though." He raised a thoughtful finger to his lips.

Harry stared at the man disdainfully. Was this moron the man his father hired?

"No matter. After I deliver the stone to my lord, I will be handsomely rewarded!" The man cried out with a high laugh. "Sorry children, you're going to leave here empty ha-ugh!"

He crumpled to the floor unconsciously as Harry lowered his fists and stepped around him to face the mirror.

"I can't believe he was actually chosen for this job." Seth said as he stared at the man on the floor with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me expression on his face.

Harry snorted in agreement as he thought about the stone's hiding place. It had something to do with the mirror, obviously. At the moment, Harry's deepest desire was to find the stone. He could see himself using the stone in the mirror, but nothing happened.

Harry thought for a moment.

Obviously, Dumbledore wouldn't let the spell be something like it appeared in your pockets if you wanted it greatly. It would be gone in a flash. What was it then?

What would Harry do if he was in Dumbledore's shoes?

"Seth, come here for a moment." Harry said. "Think very hard about wanting the stone and stand here."

Seth did as he was told and as he stared into the mirror, he found his reflection staring at him. Mirror-Seth winked at him and pulled a blood red stone out of his pockets. Seth suddenly felt a weight in his right pocket. And he patted it to make sure.

He pulled the real stone out of his pocket and a wide grin spread over his face.

"It's here!"

Harry grinned. So he was right. The mirror wouldn't give the stone to someone who actually wanted to use it, which is why it didn't work for Harry. But Seth didn't really want to use the stone, just find it, which is why it appeared in his pocket.

Seth threw the stone to Harry, who caught it in midair and held it up to a lantern to inspect the blood red color. He picked a broken wall rock from the floor and put in in his left pocket as he stared at the crimson rock. He flipped it into the air once more and slipped it into his right pocket before-

"-Not so fast!" A shout came from behind him. "_Quirrell_? But I though Snape…"

Harry turned around slowly to inspect the new arrival. Damon Potter had come through the hole in the wall, and was gaping at Quirrell until he noticed Harry and Seth standing next to the mirror.

"Snape?" Harry prompted. Oh, this would be so much fun! Maybe he would even kill the stupid youth.

"Who are you?" Damon said warily. "Are you trying to take the stone to Voldemort?"

Brave. At least he can speak my father's name.

"What? No, no. Why would I give the stone to my father, when I can keep it to myself?" Harry smirked at the Gryffindor.

"Your…your _father_?" Damon choked out. "You're his _son_?"

"That's what I said, wasn't it?" Harry frowned impatiently at the slow boy. Why was repeating everything Harry said? This was getting boring. Finally, the by gathered up his courage and stood his place.

"Dumbledore is coming. You won't be taking the stone anywhere!" Damon said determinedly.

Harry stared at the boy for a few seconds with a straight face, before bursting into laughs.

Seth, who was trying not to stand out much in case his identity was revealed, cringed at Harry's laughter. Harry was going to do something stupid again.

Harry stopped laughing as a menacing look came into his eyes.

"You can't stop me." Harry laughed with scorn in his voice.

"I don't have to." Damon said, unfazed. "I only have to stall until Dumbledore comes."

Harry smirked inwardly. This was perfect. He faked a slight look of fear as he made his voice stutter.

"D-Dumbledore? He's coming?" Harry looked around with fake panic on his face. "Look, I'm sorry, okay! I'll give you the stone, just let me leave!"

Damon watched him warily for a moment before falling for his act. Harry signaled to Seth behind his back that he was okay. He stuck out his pinky, the agreed sign they had since they were children to voicelessly tell the other they would be fine if something happened to one of them.

Seth walked behind Harry, staying quiet. He didn't know what Harry was doing, but he decided not to say anything in case he messed Harry's plan up.

"Fine. Give it here slowly." Damon extended his hand.

Harrys hand slipped into his left pocket and he held out a red stone to Damon's hand slowly, so as to show that he meant no harm.

Seth's eyes widened. Hadn't Harry slipped the stone into his right pocket?

"There." Harry said, faking resignation as he backed out of the room slowly, Seth following behind him.

"You'll be seeing me soon." He said with a wink and a smirk before grabbing Seth's hands and casting an invisibility charm on both of them.

Damon looked around, astonished. Where did they go?

Well, at least he hadn't let them get away with the stone.

Harry dragged Seth into the next room, where he pressed them both against a wall as Dumbledore came rushing through. As soon as he had his back to them, they ran out of the corridor, used their body strengthening magic to jump up the trapdoor, and finally escaped from the third floor corridor.

They both panted as they grinned at each other.

Down the trapdoor and into the mirror room, Damon Potter was shocked when the stone in his hands turned to a normal one as he handed it to Dumbledore.

Back in front of the Grand staircase, Harry grinned at the blood red stone in his hands as he bid Seth good night.

He headed back to the dorms, slipping into his room quietly and lying on is bed, congratulating himself on a job well done.

* * *

And that's a wrap, folks.


	13. Summer Break

_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and the plot._

**As you might have guessed, the earlier cover was actually Harry. Well, the new picture I just put as the cover is Seth. I have a bunch of them and I'm going to rotate through them. I figure people must like it when they can actually visualize the character, because I love doing it for other stories. Anyways, enjoy! =)**

* * *

_**~Summer break~**_

It was the end of the year feast, and they were all sitting at their respective house tables. Harry leaned back in his chair, waiting for Dumbledore to announce the results.

Dumbledore announced the rankings, and Harry smirked smugly at Seth. Gryffindor was in last place.

"I have a few last minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes…"

Harry narrowed his eyes at the old man. What was he doing?

"First, to Mr. Ronald Weasley, for the best played game of chess this school has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Whispers were spreading like wildfire now.

"Second, to Miss Hermione Granger, for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Harry realized that Dumbledore wasn't going to let them win. He lost interest as he felt irritation surge through him and he tipped his head back and gazed at the magical ceiling, looking at the stars and constellations.

"Third – to Mr. Damon Potter… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."

The houses were now roaring in delight at the prospect of finally ending Slytherin's seven year reign as house cup winners. But were there more points to come?

Dumbledore raised a hand and the crowd fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes great bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. To Mr. Neville Longbottom, I award ten points."

The crowd exploded in applause and everybody who added up the numbers knew that they were now tied with Slytherin. If only Dumbledore had given them a few more points!

Fortunately, Dumbledore seemed to have finished awarding points, but this left the students in a puzzled stump. How were they both going to win?

Harry felt a prickle of annoyance. A tie? If you were going to award points, at least do it properly!

"Thus, I find myself in the most unusual position where two houses have the same number of points. I see no choice then, but to announce them both as the Hogwarts champions of this school year!" Dumbledore said cheerily, eyes twinkling.

Gryffindor burst into cheers, happy that they at least won the house cup, even though they had to share it with Slytherin.

The Slytherins were angrily muttering to themselves and shooting glares towards Dumbledore and the Gryffindors.

Harry shrugged and started eating. Who cared about the house cup anyways?

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Exam results had come out and Harry found, as he expected, that he was the top of his year. Seth followed closely after, having gotten an EE in Herbology. Third in their year was Hermione Granger, who Harry thought smugly, no doubt was upset she wasn't the first. Or the second.

Harry had finished modifying the runes, and he had achieved a perfect doppelgänger, which meant that Seth could finally use it to replace him at the Weasley's home. Time had come for them to board the train, and Seth followed Harry under an invisibility charm to his train compartment.

They ate chocolate while Seth tried to get Harry to fess up about the summer plans. Harry didn't let anything slip and merely smirked at him in response. Students of other houses all passed by their compartment to chat for a bit with Harry before leaving for their friends.

When the train reached the station, Harry hopped off the train, backpack in hand, and walked over to _The Leaky Cauldron_ with Seth, who was trying not to bump into people under the invisibility charm, in tow.

Harry headed towards the floo, taking a pinch and saying clearly, "Malfoy manor."

He stepped into the green fire and Seth followed suit. They then flooed to the dark lord's mansion and Harry took Seth to his room. Harry had given Seth one of the guest rooms in his floor, decorated with elegant furniture.

They settled down, and Harry went to Voldemort's study to see if there was anything new.

Voldemort looked up as soon as Harry approached, nodding in acknowledgement.

"Kieran." He smiled widely at him. "You bring back good new, I suppose?"

"Yeah." Harry smirked as he slipped the stone out of the backpack and threw up high before snatching it from the air. "It was pretty easy to get."

Voldemort nodded with barely hidden satisfaction. He was right after all, to take in this child as his heir.

"Anything new?" Harry said with a bored tone.

"Our spies bring bad tidings. The order grows suspicious at the lack of action." Voldemort said, crimson eyes deep in thought. "We will have to arrange another raid. But this is not the time for such discussions. Come here, Kieran. Tell me, how did you find Hogwarts?"

Harry thought about it. Well, it was a pretty fun year, but could he honestly say that he thought the next year was going to be fun too? He wasn't done mapping the castle, for one thing. He didn't have to go back if he didn't want to, as Seth didn't have to go anymore either. But it could be fun.

He considered it before deciding he may as well go back. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

The students in Hogwarts, though, were very dull. It must be nice, to be so stupid and oblivious. They couldn't _see_ anything. Most of their worries centered upon petty matters.

Harry wondered sometimes, what he would have been like if he had been raised like a normal child. Would he have turned out like one of them? He had often questioned himself as a child about why he was different. He wanted to be like others, to fit in. But as he grew up, he realized that he didn't have to be like the rest of them.

He didn't have to, because he was better.

But they were interesting, in a way. They were vulnerable and straightforward and easy to read, even the Slytherins who didn't open up to other houses. They felt so strongly about the smallest of matters, and were quick to laugh with each other. They were "friends". Harry was astounded by the stupidity of such a concept.

Harry didn't need friends. He never would.

Harry shook himself out of it. He hated thinking about that kind of stuff.

"Interesting," Harry said. "Yet horribly dull."

"Have you found the chamber yet?"

"I'm sure I will sooner or later." Harry smirked.

"Well, I have some paperwork to finish up. Want to help?" Voldemort said with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.

"No thanks." Harry said as he stood up and headed for the door, saying over his shoulder, "I'm going to my room."

"Come at ten tomorrow for your lessons." Voldemort reminded him before turning back to his paperwork.

Harry cleared his mind as he headed to his room and grinned at Seth with a glint in his eyes.

They were going to have lots of fun this summer.

"Well, it's time to enact part one of our brilliant getaway." Harry said mischievously.

Seth looked him in the eye and slowly grinned.

"What do you have in mind?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

_Father,_

_Your bored son has decided to go on a vacation for the rest of the summer._

_Don't look for me._

_Catch you later._

_-Kieran_

Voldemort put his face in his hands as he finished reading the short letter his son had left in his room.

What did he do to deserve such a troublemaker? He was skipping three months' worth of lessons!

Kieran was so dead when he came back.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Harry's heart beat with excitement as he dragged the disguised Seth to Gringotts. Yes! He could finally do something he actually felt enthusiastic about!

Harry stopped in front of a goblin and looked up at him expectantly.

"Mr. Hades." The goblin said as he noticed him. "You would like to speak to Ragnok, I assume? Wait a moment, please. Gobuk!"

Another goblin came up to them and led them through the hallways and into Ragnok's office.

Harry strode into the room and plopped himself on the chair beside the desk, and Seth sat on the opposite one.

"Mr. Hades." Ragnok tipped his head forward in greeting. "I assume you are here for your order?"

"You assume correctly."

"Are you quite sure about this?" Ragnok stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, yes." Harry waved an impatient hand. "Just get the man here."

"Well, if say so…" Ragnok shook his head helplessly.

How could a child be so…?

He couldn't even find a word for it.

"Griphook! Call Mr. Parker." Ragnok said in a loud voice.

Parker? That was one stupid name.

After a few minutes, a tall blond man walked into the room.

"Mr. Hades, Andrew Parker, your guide." Ragnok gestured with his hand.

"My employer is a child?" He said in disbelief.

Harry stared up at the man with irritation.

"My "employee" is an adult?" Harry said in exaggerated surprise. "Let's all take turns in stating the obvious. Would you like to go next, Seth? Perhaps something about his intelligence? Because it clearly isn't very high."

"He doesn't like being called a child." Seth said apologetically. "As you can see, he's a bit… eccentric. Anyways, nice to meet you!"

"I'm not eccentric." Harry protested. "Seth, whose side are you on anyways?"

"Yours, of course!"

Harry looked at the grinning Seth and sighed.

"Honestly." He grumbled.

"Err, I'm sorry; we got off on the wrong foot." Andrew said. "You can call me Andy."

"Nice meeting you," Harry stared up at the man piercingly. "Harry, and that over there is Seth."

Andy was quiet for a moment before raising his hands with a wide smile.

"Well, where do you want to start?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Hurry up, Seth!" Harry looked back over his shoulder. They had placed a spell over themselves that made them look like older versions of themselves. They both looked around twenty.

Harry admired himself in any mirror he passed. Age had only made his face more handsome, and Harry was very fond of his looks.

Seth sighed at Harry's narcissism and he rolled his eyes as Harry stopped at a store's window again.

"Move it, Harry." Seth kicked him from behind.

"You're just jealous because I'm handsomer." Harry said as he rubbed his back.

Seth rolled his eyes at the typical response and leaned in to the mirror to gaze at his reflection.

"No matter which way you look, I still look better than you do." He walked forward.

"No you don't." Harry said as he caught up before noticing their destination.

"Kids, stop arguing." Andy called out. "And we're here!"

Harry and Seth looked up at the large building, grinning together.

"Well, let's go in!" Harry said and they ran inside.

The Latenski Hotel was one of the most renowned hotels in the world, famed for its view of the city, luxurious rooms, and the linked waterpark. One only needs to go to the underground floor, where the changing rooms were, then walk through the large door and into its waterpark.

Harry had demanded that Andy pick the best, most expensive rooms available for them, and Andy had delivered. He had chosen the penthouse suite, which encompassed the whole two top floors.

The 12-rooms suite had its own fitness center, dining hall, private swimming pool, an extremely large bathroom, a massage room, and among other things, chefs, chauffeurs and butlers to do, well, almost everything for you.

Almost anything you could need or want, this suite probably had it.

And it damn well better have it was what Andy thought after taking a ginormous sum from his employer. He felt sweat trickle down his forehead as he remembered the price. How did this little kid get such a sum of money, use it like it was nothing, and then still be rich? The sum was just… incomprehensible.

He had paid almost triple the normal amount, which was already humongous, just to convince them to let him take the suite for three months.

Andy decided not to hurt his head thinking about where the boy had gotten the money from and just enjoy their stay at the hotel.

What he didn't know was that this didn't affect Harry's wealth at all. Harry had put the philosopher's stone to good use and began turning metals to gold to boost the Hades family's already influential status in Britain, and they were quickly becoming the dominating name in the wizarding societies and perhaps one of the ten richest wizarding families in the world.

So Harry figured that he wouldn't exactly go poor if he could turn metals to gold.

"We're here for our reservation." Andy said at the front desk.

"What's the name your reservation is under?"

"Parker. Andrew Parker." He smiled at her.

Her eyes widened and she picked up the phone urgently, calling someone. It was the wealthy man taking the penthouse suite! A few seconds later, a nervous bellboy showed up and led them to their floor.

Harry and Seth were eager to see the place, and they were fidgeting around while Andy shot them warning glances. Apparently, twenty year olds did not jump around like excited kids on a Christmas morning.

When they arrived at the top floor using their private elevator, Harry and Seth ran into the living room.

"Whoa, this place is large!" Seth grinned in excitement as he looked at the city from the windows in wonder. "You can see the whole city from here!"

"It's not really all that, though, is it?" Harry said, genuinly unimpressed. "I can see a lake from the window in my floor back at the mansion, and it looks much better."

"Well, I've never seen anything from this height." Seth said in slight awe.

"Anyways, let's look around." Harry said.

At that moment, the same thought occurred to both of them.

"I call the biggest bedroom!" Harry and Seth shouted at the same time.

They snapped to each other in surprise.

A Harry stared into Seth's eyes, he knew what was coming.

One, two-

-Harry and Seth dashed off to check where the biggest one was, falling over each other as they tried to look into the rooms first. Finally, when one room was left, they had both raced towards it, hoping to reach it first.

They crashed into each other and went spiraling down to the floor. Harry recovered first, sat on Seth's back and grinned.

"Well, that settles it!"

He didn't expect Seth to use his legs to hit Harry in the stomach. Harry doubled over as Seth got him in an armlock.

"Why you - you've been practicing secretly, haven't you!" Harry exclaimed. Seth's body enhancing magic was pretty strong; he was catching up to Harry. It wasn't Harry's specialty anyways. Harry was better at enhancing reaction speed and making full use of momentum and quick reflexes, which made it seem like he was stronger in body power than he really was.

However, even with this, Harry was still a lot stronger than Seth; after all, even natural talent couldn't beat years' worth of training. In a year, Seth would probably finally surpass Harry in pure body strength, but that didn't mean Harry was going to lose. Harry was more cunning and devious, so that gave him an edge.

Harry breathed in deeply and curled into a ball before suddenly rolling over and knocking Seth off him. He grabbed Seth's wrist in a wrist lock and grinned at him.

"Well, well. Look how the tables have changed." Harry smirked triumphantly. "I guess this room is mine after all!"

"Fine, fine." Seth grumbled as Harry let go of him and they both stood up.

Andy was watching from the doorway with a poker face.

_Are they for real?_

The sight of two twenty year olds (they were still under glamours) fighting like babies had him at a loss for words _and_ expressions, which explained the current blank state of his face.

"I'll get the one next to yours, then. It's the second biggest one anyways."

They walked to the large windows, and Harry looked over at the city.

"No matter how many times I look at it, it still doesn't feel real!" Seth said as he looked straight at the ground. "It's too high. What if someone falls?"

"That why there are windows, Seth." Harry said in an isn't it obvious voice.

"That's not what I meant." Seth stared at Harry with an eye twitching.

"I know." Harry smirked.

"You're unbelievable." Seth's poker face fell apart as he felt a tug at his lips.

Andrew, who was feeling totally ignored, cleared his throat. Harry and Seth turned around, remembering he was there.

"What is it, Andrei?"

"It's Andrew." He corrected. "I think we should all get a bit of rest so we can start early tomorrow."

"Hmm." Harry was thinking. "He's right. Get out of my room."

"Are you kicking me out?"

"…You could put it that way." Harry grinned cheekily as he dragged Seth to the door. "Anyways, you better wake up early tomorrow!"

"Look who's talking." Seth grumbled under his breath. "The laziest person known to man."

"Don't whine, it's not cool." Harry smirked at him.

Seth stuck his tongue out at him and walked towards his room.

"See you in the morning," Seth called out. "And good night!"

"Good night!" Came a muffled reply from Harry, who had stuffed his face into the cool pillow and slipped under the warm blankets.

This was going to be a good summer.

Harry sighed in satisfaction as he felt the cool air hit hit his face while the warmness of the blankets enveloped him. The contrast made his mind feel hazy, almost like he was drugged, and he fell asleep.

Sleeping probably _was_ a drug in some other world.

* * *

**I've had this idea for a while now, and I just wanted to type it so I wouldn't forget it. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I'm probably going to have fun writing the next one too!**

**Of course, the hotel is completely fictional and is the creation of my bored mind, based on some other hotels I have been to.**

**The last part came from my own experience. Why is sleeping so addicting?**

**I'm going to sleep right now, in fact.**

**Catch you later :D**


	14. Insomnia

**~Insomnia~**

Oblivion.

Harry's eyes shot open as his heart beat loudly in the dark room. He pushed himself up and realized that he was drenched in sweat. Harry was a little breathless as he tried to calm down. He fell back on the bed as he remembered where he was.

Damn.

They had first come back when he had started Hogwarts, but he had put it down to seeing the Potters for the first time in a while. For the first few months, they had come only once or twice, but increased in frequency towards the end of the year. However, Harry found that he had them almost daily now.

Harry stared at the ceiling tiredly. When were they going away?

He had a life now. A life without them. He had a business empire, Seth, and a sort of father. He was content.

He raised himself off the bed slowly and stretched.

Harry remembered he hadn't gotten any clothes, saying that he'd buy a muggle wardrobe when he got here. Perhaps they would get to that tomorrow. He took his wand and waved it at himself, changing his clothes to a muggle black sleeveless hoodie and a grey shirt and shorts.

He took the muggle money Andy had given him yesterday and stuffed it into a pocket.

He didn't bother reapplying his glamour and stuffed his wand in his other pocket. If anybody asked, he would say he was with Andrew but just arrived a little late.

Harry walked out of his room stealthily, closing the door after himself and moving to the lower floor. He walked down the stairs and stopped by the elevator door.

Harry saw the button and pressed it, and he heard a _ting_ as the elevator door opened.

He walked into the spacious box and looked at the set of button on the wall. He recalled there being a G on top of the elevator they had taken up yesterday and pressed its button. The box started to go down and Harry waited or a minute before it finally reached the ground floor.

He walked out of it and into the lobby, which was empty save for the employees behind the desk. A relaxing tune was being played in the quiet, soothing air of the lobby.

The man looked up from his desk when he saw Harry come out of the lift and his eyes widened.

"Hey, little kid, where are you going?"

"Is there someplace to eat here?" He said irritably.

"3rd floor… are you sure you're supposed to be here alone?"

Harry ignored him as he went into an elevator, this time not the one specifically designed for his room, and looked at the man in uniform standing inside.

"3rd floor." He barely spared the man a glance.

The man felt a part of his dignity die as he lowered his head to a 10 year old boy.

Harry walked out of the lift and stepped into the floor.

He walked over to the desk and asked for a table. Once the woman heard he was in the penthouse suite, she walked him over to a table by large windows, which gave him a view of the city underneath.

Harry plopped himself on the chair and ordered dinner as he observed the place.

It was quiet and soft music was playing in the background while people ate together. The place was refined and elegant, and Harry would be damned before he ate in anything less.

Yes, he knew he was arrogant.

He looked out of the windows and down at the shining lights of the city.

What was he doing?

He had come here to get away from the stupid rush of memories. He figured the dreams were caused by Hogwarts, and if he took a break from everything for a while, then maybe they would go away.

Why haven't they?

His hands gripped the glass filled with water tightly and clenched his jaw. He sighed and rubbed his forehead.

Well, it wasn't that big of a problem. He'd just have to find something else to do at night.

And as he glanced out the windows again, he figured that he might very well have found it. He would have to be careful though, to keep this secret from Seth. It wasn't that big of a deal anyways, there was no need for someone to fuss around annoyingly about it.

"Excuse me?" He heard a voice address him.

He looked up to see a pretty blonde waitress with a tray in hand.

"Are you okay?" She asked again.

Harry lifted his eyes to gaze coldly at her.

"Fine. You can put the food down."

She put the food down in front of him and looked at him for a moment before leaving.

Harry sighed through his nose as he started eating. Well, this would be a long night.

Harry wasn't used to not sleeping. He loved sleep, and was by nature lazy, unless it was for something he enjoyed.

Harry beckoned to a waiter who came over to clean up the table while Harry walked out of the floor, down to the lobby, and out the door.

* * *

Harry had gotten back after an hour or two, and managed to get four hours of rest due to sheer exhaustion before someone knocked on his door loudly.

Harry groaned as he rolled out of bed and walked groggily to the door. He opened it, massaging his neck lazily.

"What do you want, Seth?" He said tiredly.

"Still as lazy as ever, I see? Get dressed. We" Seth grinned at him, "are going to the water park."

Harry grinned widely and felt a bit of the tiredness leave his body. Just what he needed!

"I'll be out in a minute." He said before slamming the door and heading to his backpack.

It was still in peak condition after all those years. Probably because Harry cast a spell on it. But he still liked to keep it with him wherever he went. Perhaps he would leave it in a year or two, when he found a more convenient way of carrying thing around with him.

He opened it and rummaged through the many contents of the bottomless backpack. There were a several changes of clothes, a few chocolate boxes he hadn't quite managed to finish from the enormous bunch he bought at the beginning of the year, an extra wand holster, and a few potion ingredients that might have been hazardous if he hadn't placed them in special boxes, vials of different potions, and some other stuff.

Compared to how it was before he cleaned it out a few days ago, Harry felt he did a pretty decent job keeping it neat.

He grabbed a vial of vitamix potion and downed it. He felt a burst of energy sweep out the tiredness from his body and he rolled his shoulder. Time for some fun, he grinned.

He walked out the door and into the living room, smirking at the two standing there.

"Well, shall we, Seth, Andreas?" He raised his hands and beckoned to the lift.

"Andrew." He muttered almost to himself. "It's Andrew."

"Let's get going, shall we?" Harry gave him a fake smile.

Harry and Seth moved towards the elevator before they felt a hand coming down on their shoulders.

"Forgetting something?" Andy rolled his eyes.

Harry raised an eyebrow at him.

"We might have a better idea if you just get on with it, Randy." Harry said imperiously with crossed arms.

"…" Andy stared silently at the kid, starting to see that this would be a very miserable three month stay at the hotel. "Your glamours."

They headed out of the room a few minutes later, glamours applied, and headed for the entrance.

Once they got to the changing rooms inside, they quickly wore the newly acquired swimming trunks they had gotten from a shop, and wore identical grins as they marched into the large, enormous, waterpark.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!" They screamed as they were sliding down the enormous waterslide and into the swimming pool with a splash.

They fooled around with both of them trying to mock drown the other, and after an hour or two of trying out the various rides, they settled on a few reclining chairs beside a large swimming pool. Harry bought something muggle called sunglasses and lay down on the chair while Seth decided that he hadn't had enough of the water.

Harry was lying down, hands under his neck, soaking in the sun with his wet hair slicked backwards and out of his face.

"Hey there." He heard a voice above him purr and he opened his eyes to find a longhaired brunette smiling down at him. "Mind some company?"

Harry slid off his sunglasses ad smirked at her.

"Not at all."

While Harry did not really care about girls at this age, he appreciated a little eye candy.

"I'm Tasha," she lay down on the recliner beside him while giving him a flirty grin, "and you are?"

"Hadrian, sweetheart, but you can call me Harry." He grinned easily at her.

She blushed visibly and Harry smirked inwardly. He knew he was good looking, and this was only inflating his ego even more.

"So what's a beautiful woman like you doing alone here?" He said with a charming wink.

"Bad breakup." She said, looking momentarily angry. "Just had to get away from everything, you know? Take a break."

Harry stared at her in surprise.

"I understand what you're talking about. I'm here to take a break myself." He smiled attractively at her.

Well, this was fun. Harry was an old hand at charming people, and was enjoying himself immensely when-

"-Harry!" Seth ran to him while grinning. "Come on, let's play!"

Harry wanted to kick Seth in the behind for interrupting.

Tasha looked at him strangely for a moment before looking back at Seth. No wonder he was so nice and understanding! She sighed at her luck. It was too good to be true after all. British, hot , not taken, and straight? Impossible.

"I can see I'm interrupting something." She smiled apologetically as she left to go.

"Huh? Bye, I guess." Seth looked confused.

"No, it's alright, really, you can stay." Harry insisted. It was most definitely ok with him.

"No need to be shy." She smiled at them. "Enjoy yourselves."

She walked back to a group of girls, waving to them.

Harry felt a surge of annoyance at Seth and kicked him painfully.

"You idiot! You drove her away! Now I have to stare at your stinky male face all day long!" Harry groaned.

"What?" Seth spluttered. "Shut up, besides she's twenty! You're almost ten!" Seth waved at him.

"She didn't know that, did she?" Harry glared at him. "Besides, maturity isn't measured by age. I am obviously extremely mature, while you are still disgusted by girls."

Harry slid his sunglasses back down when Seth jumped on him. Harry narrowly avoided the attack and stood up a few steps away.

"I'm right, and you know it."

They fought until Harry saw the group of girls giggle and refused to do so anymore, trying to preserve the last piece left of his dignity. They went on a few more rides before Harry felt the effect of the potion disappear completely and the tiredness climbed back into his bones. They went out of the park after changing, and headed to the restaurant.

When they finally finished their schedule, it was night and Harry was reeling with exhaustion.

He was so tired he collapsed on the bed, and for the first time in a while, he didn't wake up till morning.

* * *

Know who else is tired? Me! I know this was short, but I have a lot of quizzes this week. Don't worry, more is on the way!

Tell me what you think!

Later.


	15. Spiral

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot and the OCs.

Hey, folks!

Sorry I was late. My birthday was a 10 days ago, and then my laptop got infected by the stupid blue screen of death. Yes, all of my work lost. The chapter I was working on was all gone. Which is why this was late.

Anyways, I would like to use this space to warn you. This is not going to be a happy story where nobody dies and everybody makes up at the end and they're all happily co-existing to create a beautiful peaceful word where the birds sing and the sun shines.

No. I am not trying to make dreamland here. Characters will die, friends will become enemies, and somebody won't end up happy. The question is who that stuff is going to happen to. I roughly already have the plot drawn out in my mind, so hopefully I won't fall prey to a plot hole somewhere.

Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

**~Spiral~**

"Well, you took a very long break." Voldemort looked at him patiently. "Now why would that be, I wonder?"

"I got bored." Harry lied easily with a fake grin. Not like his father would believe him.

If people thought Harry was freakishly talented at everything, then they ought to see his father. Just like Seth was exasperated at Harry's winning streaks, Harry was exasperated at Voldemort's. He always won.

He had over the years he had spent beside Voldemort, grown to deeply respect the man. His loyalty to his father was unbreakable.

His father stared at him before slowly nodding. He didn't press, but it was obvious he didn't believe him. Harry thought he saw a knowing look in his eyes before it was replaced by an emotionless mask again.

Harry had been exhausted during their stay at the hotel. It was starting to get to him. He had become more moody, noticeably more irritable, and the glamours had become too hard to hold up with his mood swings.

But Harry couldn't keep this up for much longer. Which is why he had been happy, when in the middle of august, Andrew informed him that his summer vacation was actually about 2 months. Harry was so relieved he hadn't scolded him for not telling him before he booked the hotel for all three months.

"You are going to learn all of your missed work in the next two weeks." Voldemort looked at him seriously.

"…" Harry stared blankly. "Come on. Seriously?"

"There are consequences to skipping work." Voldemort smiled at him. "You could probably learn it in an even shorter time. You're just too lazy."

Voldemort wasn't kidding. His son was powerful, as he had found out when he had started teaching the boy. The boy was already more powerful than almost every other average grown wizard. The only thing that he lacked was a wide arsenal of spells, which he wouldn't get if he was so _lazy_. If he was already so strong with just basic spells, Voldemort smiled at what he could do if he learned more powerful ones.

Voldemort may have been a cold hearted bastard, but he had a soft spot for the boy he had come to see as his son. It started with recognizing the boy's expression on that night so long ago, when he had decided to take him in. He knew that look in his eyes.

He knew it because it mirrored his exactly at that age.

Eyes that were too mature; that have seen the harsh reality of this world. He could see the fear, the terror, tiredness and the anger. An anger that never really goes away; the kind that only lays low for a while before it resurfaces. And it took a man with the same kind of anger to know another.

Which is why he could see that his son was still angry.

Voldemort wasn't stupid. He had an idea of what his son was going through.

Which is why he was doing this. Harry obviously needed a distraction, and if he was too busy with learning, his mind might be taken off the other things.

Why had he done that? Perhaps it was because Harry was the only person in the world who shared the same experience. Their childhoods were parallel lines of fear and pain. Was it out of a sense of kinship?

They had both closed themselves off to the world. They were the only ones in the whole earth which understood what happened to the other.

And Voldemort had tried to change it for Harry. He had known that Harry had a friend in the orphanage. It took a few years to find him, but when he did, he offered the boy a chance to join his ranks as a spy, and had immediately handed him over to Harry when he accepted.

Voldemort admitted that it hadn't been selfless. He had wanted to see what would happen if he had found someone too. Would he have turned out differently?

He would never know, but he would try to change it for Harry.

Because it was the first time.

It was the first time Voldemort had felt affection.

He didn't want to see him return to the hell they both experienced. He didn't want to see him hurt or sad. He didn't want him to feel invisible again.

As alien a concept as happiness was, he wished it for him.

It was laughable that after all these years of treating people like shit; the only person who he could feel affection for was a person just like himself.

And Voldemort could see that Harry was slowly slipping back into the past. He would have to try and keep him busy.

He placed his hands on Harry's shoulder and looked piercingly into his eyes.

"Harry."

Harry felt that it was serious and looked back into his father's eyes.

"I know that you want revenge." After all, Voldemort had been there at one time too. "But you are not going to get it if you don't work hard. The light may be oblivious, but they are not weak."

Harry stayed quiet or a while before nodding.

"I understand." He said in a quiet voice, his frozen green orbs resting on the ground.

Voldemort's hand fell from his shoulders and he returned to his desk.

"Report here in the morning. I'll personally train you."

Harry nodded and slipped out quietly, exhaustion wiping any traces of playfulness.

He was feeling numb these days. Was it brought on by his exhaustion?

He walked to his floor, pausing slightly when he entered. He worked up a playful smirk and entered.

"Harry! Let's play exploding snaps!" Seth grinned at him.

Harry instantly felt his fake smile turn into a more genuine one, and somehow, he felt a bit lighter.

* * *

Seth had snuck back into the Weasleys in preparation for the upcoming school year, and Harry had finished his lessons earlier to go to Diagon Alley for school supplies.

He tapped the entrance of diagon alley with his wand and stepped into the cobbled stone path. He cut through the crowded space, going into shops to get his supplies. The last things he was getting were his books and he raised an eyebrow in surprise when he saw a large crowd lining up for something.

He ignored them and cut through to reach the books when he saw something interesting. And oh did Harry love interesting stuff.

Draco and Lucius Malfoy were standing across of the Weasleys, Seth, and the Potters, obviously having a confrontation.

Harry felt a familiar smirk tug at his face. It had been too long since he had last seen trouble play out.

After what must have been a cutting remark, Arthur Weasley lunged angrily at Malfoy senior, but the fight was stopped when Hagrid came over to break them apart. Harry saw malfoy putting back a strange book which Harry was sure was not in the Weasley girl's cauldron before

Hmm.

The Weasleys left soon after with Seth, leaving behind the Potters and the grangers.

Harry sighed as he lost interest and went back to boring, tiring life. He headed to the counter with his pile of, in his opinion, useless books. Unfortunately, it seemed like the Potters had not, as he thought, already checked out.

* * *

Damon was feeling annoyed. The whole episode with Malfoy, then Lockhart's annoying attempts to get fame. He just wanted to go home. He walked over to the counter with his parents when he saw Hades.

His surprise left him pausing for a moment.

"Hades?"

He almost didn't recognize the boy. He wasn't wearing his usual smirk, or at least that annoyed look he always had when he was around them. His eyes were coldly emotionless.

"Potter." He nodded at him.

What was wrong with him?

Now that Damon looked closely, he did look a bit tired. Or was it just him?

"Where are your parents?" Damon finally asked, trying to start a conversation.

If it was possible, the mood went up even higher on the freezing scale. Oops. Had he said something wrong?

"10 galleons and 4 sickles, please." The shopkeeper told Harry.

Harry threw a small pouch of tinkling gold coins on the counter and placed his books into his backpack.

He finally turned to Damon with something in his eyes that made shivers go up Damon's spine.

"They're busy." He said at last, before turning around to go.

"Well, he's a bit unpleasant, isn't he?" Lily said uncertainly.

Damon felt bad. Was that why he was so angry?

After thinking for a moment, Damon grabbed Harry's sleeve.

Harry jerked back as if burned and glared at Damon.

"Mind respecting my personal space?" He said cuttingly.

"Sorry." Damon grinned sheepishly. "I was just wondering if, you know, you wanted to come with us? We're meeting up with the Weasleys at Fortescue's, so you could sit with Seth."

He saw Harry's eye twitch and quickly grabbed him back to the Potters, ignoring any protest. "He can come with us, right?"

"Well, sure, why not?" James smiled at him.

For a second, Damon thought he saw an angry, almost bestial expression take over Harry's face. But then the moment passed and he thought he must have been mistaken.

* * *

Harry was trying to control himself. The anger was back. It was like an inferno, burning at his mind. He was exercising a great deal of self control to keep his expression blank.

He didn't open his mouth, for fear that if he talked, he would suddenly explode.

No.

They weren't worth it. They weren't worth it.

Harry repeated that inside his head as he tried to keep his cool. He concentrated like his father taught him, and wrapped all the conflicting emotions of hate and other things into a big bundle, and placed it in a "box" at the back of his mind.

His father had told him to use this in emergencies only, as he would have to deal with the consequences of it later when the "box" was full.

It was incredible. There was finally only peace and quiet in his mind. There was no emotion.

Good. Harry didn't want to feel anymore. Emotions were a weakness. He couldn't even get annoyed by Damon anymore.

Right. He had already acted strangely. He needed to fix whatever damage had been done when he was trying to control himself.

He plastered his usual smirk on his face, walking confidently.

Damon looked at him a bit strangely, but figured that he felt better because he was with someone now, even if it wasn't his family.

Harry spotted Seth and ran over to him, grinning genuinely this time. Seth grinned back and they went to order ice-cream on their own.

"That boy has issues!" James whistled, astonished at Harry's 180 mood change. "What was up with him?"

"James!" Lily scolded. "The boy was clearly feeling down. He must be feeling better now that he met his friends."

Damon glanced at Harry and Seth, and wondered about that. Maybe it was just his imagination overworking, but he couldn't help but think that even though he was back to his usual attitude, his eyes looked a bit cold and numb.

* * *

"Which flavor do you want?" Seth asked happily.

Seth frowned when Harry didn't answer and looked at him worriedly.

"Harry?"

Harry snapped out of it and grinned at Seth.

"What?"

Seth wasn't exactly the most subtle person on the planet. He was honest and straightforward, and that was what he did best.

"Are you okay?" Seth asked.

"Why are you asking?" Harry looked at him in surprise.

"I know I don't look very observant, but you've been acting weird all summer." Seth said earnestly. "And you feel like you're going to explode."

Harry's eyes widened slightly. He relaxed his unconsciously clenched fists.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me." Seth looked at him sincerely. "Everybody has something they don't want to share."

"It just makes me kind of sad. I can see that you're struggling but I don't know what to do." Seth said with a trace of helplessness but smiled honestly at him. "But you know, right? Whenever you need me, I'll be there, because you're my friend."

Friend?

Seth held out Harry's ice-cream for him to take.

"Here." grinned. "Coming?"

Harry stared at him for a moment before grabbing the ice-cream.

"Yeah." Harry said quietly.

Friends…

Harry walked behind Seth as he felt something warm slightly melt the cold clearness inside his mind.

He supposed it was okay to have one. Just one.

Harry didn't know why, but he found himself smiling unconsciously.

* * *

Damon saw Harry and Seth come back, and noticed a big smile on Harry's face. Well, it seemed like they were much closer than he had thought. He'd never seen Harry give anyone that smile.

For some reason he didn't know, he felt a small pang of jealousy.

He was puzzled. Why did he care? It wasn't like they were even friends or anything.

There was just _something_ about him that made Damon want to be his friend.

* * *

Harry went back to the Potters, not even being annoyed when they talked to him.

Now he just felt numb when dealing with them.

It was better this way. Emotions just got in the way.

"Did you boys get everything you need?" Lily asked them.

"Yes Mrs. Potter." Seth smiled up at her.

"Actually, I still have one thing I need to get." Harry glanced at Seth and grinned. "I still didn't get my chocolate."

"Let's go get it then." Seth grinned at him, knowing how much chocolate Harry could consume.

As they got up to go, Lily looked at them worriedly.

"Wait!" She said. "I'll go with you."

"There's no need." Harry grinned forcefully. "_Really_."

But she was not to be deterred.

"We can't let you two run off alone!" She exclaimed. "What if something happens to you?"

Harry didn't really care if she came or not.

He pushed past her and into the shop near the entrance. The woman at the counter, who recognized Harry from his last insane visit, paled at the sight of him.

"Mr. Hades. Welcome." She said hurriedly as she rushed to stand before him.

"Hades?" Lily said in surprise.

"Yes." Harry raised an eyebrow at her.

She looked at him sadly. No wonder he was here alone! His parents must be too busy with business.

"Are you always alone at summer?" She asked in a sympathetic voice.

"My parents are busy." She noticed that his smile was a bit more forced now. She smiled as an idea came into her mind.

"Well, you could always stay with us!" She said excitedly. "You and Seth can come over and stay with us next summer!"

"No thanks." Harry's grin was slipping from his face. "I'm good."

Lily felt a little more hurt by his instant rejection than she should have.

"Oh…" She said, forlorn.

Seth kicked Harry subtly and glared at him. Why was he so mean?

"We'll think about it, Mrs. Potter." He reconciled.

The shopkeeper, who had been standing by all this time, glanced awkwardly at them.

"Is there anything I can get you?" She smiled nervously.

"The same as last time." Harry ordered and put his backpack on the table. "You can put it in there."

The woman nodded as she started to cram a huge number of every sort of sugary goodness in sight.

"Well, that can't be good for you." Lily frowned at him disapprovingly. "Are you sure you're allowed to get this much?"

"They don't care." Harry gave a shrug as he paid the woman and grabbed his backpack. "Let's go."

"Yeah." Seth walked out after him.

Lily felt even worse for the boy. She had to get Damon to invite him for the summer.

* * *

Harry was walking back into his floor, staring off into space. It was almost midnight by the time he had come back. He entered his room quietly and glanced at the bed in the middle.

He stared at it for a long time before walking to it and sitting down on it. He slowly lay back until he was staring at the ceiling. As usual, sleep wouldn't come.

He thought about what happened that day, and remembered hat wonderful clearness when he didn't have to _feel_ anymore. He cleared his mind and focused on that thought, smiling peacefully when he felt the emotions wash away. He wasn't very good at Occlumency, but when he really concentrated, he could do a good job.

He felt fatigue sink its claws into his mind, and smiled as he fell into a light doze.

It wasn't the best rest in the world.

But it was all he had.

* * *

I think this chapter was to emphasize that while Harry is closer to Seth than to Voldemort, Voldemort is really the only person who is able to understand Harry, because the same thing happened to him.

When I started this fic, I imagined that Harry and Voldemort were probably the only people who understood each other, while Harry and Seth's relationship was more of an innocent, touching friendship. I hope that this chapter conveys that. The whole box thing also plays an important role in the story.

See ya. :)


	16. Shattered

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot and the OCs.

Okay, a reviewer mentioned it wasn't realistic that all of Harry's year is gifted. I already mentioned before that in this fic, all of the characters have their birthday moved one year back, save for Harry and Seth. Their age is important to me while writing this story, which is why I moved them back a year.

Anyways, there won't be any more people who are entered early. When I said really talented, I meant the kind that are one in ten million or so, and it's weird enough that three(Harry and Seth and Damon) were born in the same year. Just like Dumbledore and Grindelwald and Voldemort, I guess, three extremely talented wizards born in the same "time". It would be too much of a stretch to add in a fourth character who is entered early.

In any case, I just realized I should pick up the pace and start writing chapters faster if I want to be done any time before 2023 or something, which is why this is out earlier than usual.

* * *

** ~Shattered~**

Harry had returned to Hogwarts on the first day of September, looking forward to the new year. The castle was beautiful. Harry didn't know why, but being in the castle, surrounded by magic, gave him a warm comfortable feeling, like being wrapped under heavy blankets on a cold winter night.

Harry lived in the dark lord's manor, but it never really felt like home. It was where he lived, certainly, but Hogwarts felt special, infinitely more familiar. Perhaps all children felt the same, or maybe it was just Harry's special circumstances.

Harry thought that if they won the war, he might live permanently in the castle.

But right now, that didn't seem like a very appealing idea.

"Good morning, class! Of course, you all know who I am – it is quite embarrassing at times – but I'll just give you quick run through. Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of _Witch Weekly_'s Most Charming Smile Award." He gave an annoying smile that made the girls swoon.

Harry was ignoring the whole class and staring out of the windows, which were enchanted to have a view of the outside sky. Harry shared this class with the Ravenclaws, so he was content with the silence that resulted from their serious outlook on studying and paying attention in class.

"Well, now that we got that out of the way, I have a little quiz for you. No, no, don't look so horrified! You will all do well – provided you read your course books!"

He handed out the quiz papers, an annoying arrogant grin on his face.

'You have thirty minutes – start – _now_!"

Harry felt his eye twitch when he read the questions on the paper and resolutely put his pen down and went back to looking out of the window.

Soon, the time limit was over and Lockhart began collecting the papers, frowning at Harry when he saw the empty paper.

"Well, Mr. Hades, it seems like you haven't been able to answer any question." He scolded with a grin. "I see you've been neglecting your assigned books!"

It was one of Harry's highly developed skills to be able to tune out anything that was likely to displease him, and he now blanked out Lockhart's annoying voice.

"Don't worry though, my good chap, I'm sure you'll do better next time!" He put a hand on Harry's shoulder consolingly.

Harry felt irritation and grabbed the man's hands twisting them sharply and holding him by the elbow, ignoring Lockhart's pained protests.

The surrounding students gaped at Harry, shock and horror on the girls' and glee and gratitude on the boys'.

_'The man was insufferable!' _thought one Ravenclaw boy.

"Ow ow ow, Mr. Hades! This is outrageous!"

Harry let go and smiled at the man. He let slip a few freezing tendrils of magic that increased the tension to help make his point.

"Reflexes can be difficult to tame. I'm sure you can understand. After all those," Harry's mouth stretched in cold mocking, "_adventures_."

Lockhart shivered as he stared into Harry's dead eyes.

"However, I think it would be beneficial to both of us," Harry looked deep into his eyes, "if you consider giving me permission to, you know, do some self study, read a book or two, during your period," Harry said in a joking, friendly voice, _"my good chap_." He finished with disdain.

Beads of sweat were running down Lockhart's forehead and his slightly trembling body.

"Y-yes, of course, I can see you're a very a-advanced student. I think you'll be f-fine on your own."

"My thanks." Harry smiled widely, widening his eyes in innocence. "But you look a tad shaken, professor; is everything alright?"

"Here, let me help you." Harry handed him a handkerchief he slipped out from his pocket and slapped him lightly on the back, twice. "I think you'll be just fine. I'll be taking my leave now."

Harry smiled at the speechless Lockhart and leaned down to grab his backpack, grinning widely as he fake saluted the fraud on his way out.

As soon as he was out the door, the smile fell from his face. Harry, tired as hell and already operating on a short fuse, massaged his throbbing head. Their new defense teacher was a _moron_. Harry headed to the library, taking out some unfinished work. His father was right, he had been slacking lately.

The library was rather empty except for a few groups of older students. It was filled with books and gave off a cozy feeling, the smell of aged paper in the air.

Harry took out a quill and parchment and got started on his potions essay. It was about the use of mandrakes in potions. Snape had not spared the Slytherins in his recent bad mood.

Mandrakes were magical creatures with a fatal scream. Their uses in potions were many, like the ability to…?

What did mandrakes do again?

Mandrakes…

Harry's eyelids felt like they weighted a ton, and Harry slowly placed his head on the table, unable to keep them open anymore.

He hadn't slept well in days. What happened today was just the symptoms of the cracks in his mind starting to show.

And he was just so tired…

Harry's eyes slid shut, and he fell into relatively peaceful sleep.

Where was Harry?

It was dinner time and Seth was walking through the crowd, looking for a sign of his smirking black haired friend.

He caught a glimpse of Harry's dorm mates and ran after them.

"Hey," He greeted, slightly out of breath from running, "do you know where Harry is? No one's seen him since morning."

"Harry?" Draco raised a superior eyebrow at him. "No idea, Prewett."

Draco thought Harry had the right to befriend anybody he wanted to. It didn't mean he liked Harry's choice of friends.

"He scared the daylight out of Lockhart and threatened him into giving him a free pass for all his periods." Lorelei smirked at him. "Though it was a bit _odd_." She added as an afterthought, "I've never seen Harry snap like that. He does look a bit tired nowadays."

Seth's eyes widened. He hadn't known it was _that_ bad. He had to convince Harry to get some help.

"Thanks." He muttered distractedly before walking away.

"Don't know what Harry sees in him." Draco snorted.

"He's cute." Lorelei grinned deviously. "I don't mind having hotties around."

"Lore." Theo rolled his eyes.

"Maybe I'll play with him a bit." She smirked.

"Yeah, so Harry can murder you." Draco muttered under his breath.

A sharp kick to the shins left him raising his hands in surrender.

"What was that, Draco?" Lore smiled sweetly.

"Nothing." Draco raised his arms in surrender. "Nothing at all."

Sometimes, he couldn't tell who scared him more, Harry or Lorelei?

Harry blurrily opened his eyes to find that he had slept through most of the day. Somehow, he couldn't find it in himself to regret it.

He felt … great!

Harry wondered how he fell asleep. Well, he had probably tired himself out.

Harry finished up his essay and gathered his things, leaving the library. He was walking in the stone cold hallway and thinking about how he was able to sleep earlier.

Harry was walking when he felt someone bump into him. A blur of red hair rushed away as he scowled in annoyance but decided it wasn't worth the effort.

He was on his way to the Great Hall when he spotted Seth frantically looking in the passageways.

"Hey!" Harry said in a cheerful voice.

"I've been looking for you all day!" Seth peered at him suspiciously and said, "Where were you?"

"What do you mean?" Harry widened his eyes. "I had class."

"Your dorm mates said you didn't attend class." Seth narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "And they said something about you exploding in Lockhart's face."

"He deserved it." Harry grumbled. Was everybody against him today or what?

"Harry…" Seth said hesitantly, "maybe you should get some help."

"I'm fine, Seth." Harry said, starting to get annoyed. He didn't like it when someone pressed him.

"Harry, you haven't been able to get some sleep for a while now, and you look sick!" Seth argued. "Losing your temper with Lockhart was just the first straw!"

"I said I'm fine!" Harry snapped as his temper flared.

Seth stepped back in shock.

"If you think so, Harry." He sighed, seeing there was no use. Now that he looked closely, Harry did seem refreshed… maybe he found a solution to whatever's been bothering him after all.

"Look, let's just go down and grab some food before exploring, okay?" Harry sighed.

They headed down to the Great Hall, managing to eat some food before heading back to the passageways.

They were out the large door when they spotted the golden trio staring at the wall with a horrified expression on their faces. Mrs. Norris was hanging by her tail, her face and body petrified in an expression of terror. Harry noticed there was writing on the wall.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

Seth stared in shock at the wall, while Harry stared coldly at the scene. Harry's mind was working a mile an hour. Heir? Harry was sure only he had Slytherin blood in his veins in Hogwarts.

What in the world was happening?

A large rumble sounded in the corridor and signified the end of the feast. Footsteps made their way out the Great Hall's door, and shocked silence met the site in the corridor outside.

"Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, mudbloods!" A voice shouted.

The crowd parted to reveal an excited looking Draco Malfoy with Crabbe and Goyle in tow.

"Make way! Make way!" Filch shouted out loud when he saw the crowd. He cut through the students and gasped in shock at the sight of his beloved cat hanging by its tail.

"My cat! _Mrs. Norris!" _He shrieked as his eyes fell on Damon, who was closest to the wall. "Who did this?! _You-_! You _killed_ her! I'm going to _kill_ you, you _nasty_-" He lunged for Damon –

" – Argus! Contain yourself!" Dumbledore's loud voice permeated the air.

"He _murdered_ my _cat_, that _lying_, _killing_, piece of _scum_!" He sobbed as he held his beloved cat to his chest.

"Let us not jump to conclusions, Argus."

Dumbledore examined the situation, quickly taking in details.

"But I didn't! I swear I didn't!" Damon shouted desperately. "We were just passing through when we came upon it!"

"It's true professor!" Hermione voiced frantically, looking around until her gaze landed on Harry. "He saw us!"

"Is that true, Mr. Hades?" Dumbledore peered at him from above his glasses.

During his time at the school, Harry had tried to stay as far as possible from the old man. He felt the familiar waves of anger clawing at his mind before he resealed them.

"Perhaps." He said coolly. "We had just come upon this scene ourselves."

Harry didn't really care about Mrs. Norris, or anybody else who might be harmed by the basilisk. What really nagged at Harry's mind was who could've done this. Harry didn't really care if the chamber was opened, he just wanted to know who had dared assume the mantle, and if so, how he or she had opened the chamber!

There was virtually no possibility of their being another parselmouth in Hogwarts, so the only conclusion was that either he or his father had done it. Since his father was obviously not here, that only left himself, which was what puzzled him. He was sure he didn't do it.

The question was, if he didn't … then who did?

"We saw them." Seth quickly tried to make up for Harry's suddenly distracted look. "They looked horrified at the site."

_"_I see_." _Dumbledore sighed heavily.

"If I may say something, Headmaster…" Snape's sneering voice reached them as he walked through the parted crowd.

"Go ahead, Severus."

Harry slipped away from the mess, thinking hard about what happened. Who dared assume the identity of Slytherin's heir?

He felt someone grab him, and turned around with a scowl, planning to flip the person, only stopping when he realized it was Seth.

"What was that?" He said, out of breath.

"I don't know." Harry whispered heatedly. "I didn't get any news of this."

"Maybe it was a joke?" Seth said uncertainly.

Somehow, Harry didn't think so.

A days later, and all the school could talk about was the strange message written on the walls. People had been talking about it all day long, murmuring and whispering about it behind Damon Potter's back.

Harry had thought it incredibly funny that the Hufflepuffs seemed to think it was Damon who was the heir.

The Gryffindors had tried asking about it in their shared History of Magic period, managing to get a little info from the ghost teacher.

Harry didn't care so much about the chamber than he did about who did it. He was still exhausted from lack of sleep, and this was just irritating him more.

A few days after the chamber fiasco, Harry was sitting in the transfiguration classroom. His eyelids felt like a ton, and somehow he found himself drifting off.

He dreamt of his childhood again, sweating and groaning lowly in his sleep. Seth was busy taking down notes, and didn't notice Harry's lightly trembling form, thinking he was probably daydreaming as usual. McGonagall, though, had noticed him sleeping and had come forward sternly, looking down at his head.

"Mr. Hades!" She snapped out loud.

Harry eyes opened with a slight struggle for breath, and he was shaking slightly as he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. When had he fallen asleep?

Seth's eyes widened when he took in Harry's slightly wide eyes. Was that a trace of fear? Harry's eyes regained their cold look, making Seth think it was probably a trick of the light.

Luckily, the bell had rung at that exact moment, saving Harry from detention.

Seth had stood up and rushed after Harry, who exited the class as soon as he heard the bell's chime.

"Harry!" Seth shouted.

Harry ignored him as he walked forward. He was already in a bad mood.

The golden trio, who had seen what happened, took off after them, thinking there was trouble.

"Harry!" Seth grabbed his sleeve, forcing him to turn around. He demanded in a determined voice, "What was that?"

"Nothing." Harry tugged on his grip.

"That wasn't nothing! You didn't tell me you had nightmares!" Seth insisted loudly. "You need to get help! You can't go on like this!"

"It's _nothing_." Harry said more forcefully as he yanked his hand back.

"How can you say that?" Seth shouted out in frustration. "Do you know how worried I am? You haven't been sleeping lately and you look like hell! I didn't think it was _this_ bad!"

"It's none of your _business_!" Harry couldn't take it any longer. He _hated_ it when anyone pressed him.

Luckily, the hallway was empty save for the golden trio, who had caught part of the conversation.

"What's happening?" Ron exclaimed.

"_Nothing_!" Harry roared, finally losing his temper, sparks flying from his eyes. "Can you all just _go_?"

They all took a step back, unnerved by the deadly look in his eyes.

"But …" Damon trailed off. What was going _on_?

"_Leave_!" Harry snarled in a terrifying voice.

They hesitantly left, one by one, until only Seth was left standing with an uncertain expression on his face.

"Harry…" Seth opened his mouth.

"Go. Just go." Harry said, trying to control his temper.

Seth slowly walked away, looking back with a forlorn look.

Harry tried to control his erratic breathing, leaning against the wall.

That last dream had been the metaphoric straw that broke the camel's back. Harry felt the anger filling his body; a pressure building up inside his fists, and he had to do _something_, it felt like he would just _explode_ if he didn't do _something_, _**anything**_ –!

Harry punched the wall, hard. Again. And again. And again and again.

His knuckled were bleeding, but he barely noticed it, only needing the relieve of pressure taking out his anger on the wall gave him.

When he had finally run out of fuel, he panted as he leaned on the now bloodied wall, feeling empty and cold and tired. His head hurt. It hurt so much, and he just couldn't deal with it and all the other conflicting emotions.

Harry had finally reached his breaking point.

What if he could just … switch it off?

He had been sealing his emotions in a box. What if he could seal the part of him that caused all these emotions?

Sure, a piece of the part that let him feel what was happening now rather than what happened in the past might be buried along with the other, but it was worth it. Because Harry couldn't take it anymore.

_Emotions made you weak._

And with that, Harry made his decision.

He focused, isolating the pieces he wanted and ripping it out of the clutches of his mind, he threw it into the "box" and sealed it with a final, determined, brush of his mind. Harry wasn't that good at Occlumency and clearing his mind, he was by nature a legilimens, but he had, by sheer force of desperation, committed the hardest measure any occlumens took.

He had sealed off a part of his emotions almost permanently.

And it was liberating.

* * *

Woohoo! Make way for a colder, more ruthless, cool-headed Harry with a greater capability to be cruel. Harry is not suddenly going to turn into a batshit crazy maniac or something, so don't worry. He'll just … feel less, I guess. Whoa, that rhymes. And I'm getting lamer by the second. I'll just shut up and spare myself further embarrassment.

Anyways, I've been wondering if my grammar and spelling mistakes are too many. Should I take more time to review them or just straight out post the chapter when I'm done?

I just realized I always end my chapter with an "anyways". Wow, what is wrong with me?

Goodbye!


	17. Devious

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OC's and the plot.

I thought after all those darker chapters, we need a light break.

* * *

**~Devious~**

Harry opened his eyes, waking up from sleep. His green eyes glowed momentarily before reverting to their intense green color. He looked down at his right hand. There was blood. He looked at it appraisingly. He didn't know any healing magic. It was the second day, and his knuckles were quite hurting him.

He would have to go to the Madame Pomfrey.

Harry conjured a bandage to wrap his hand up and headed for the Hospital wing. On his way, Harry couldn't help but marvel at the clearness of his mind. The hate and anger were still there, as strong as ever, but they didn't obstruct him and boil in his mind. They brought everything into focus.

You could think of it as a sword. When it was being forged in burning flames, it was hot, yet useless and unbalanced. Once it had been taken out and left to cool, though … the sword became a deadly blade with a wicked edge.

This is exactly what he needed to be like if he was to get vengeance. Patient. Calculating, He couldn't afford to have his anger cloud his mind and cause him to make an error.

One wrong move.

That was all it took for his plans of vengeance and retribution to crash down around him. Harry couldn't afford to be so careless anymore. He had been slacking too much in the past years already.

Come to think of it, his cover could use a little more work.

Anyways, he felt better than he had in days! He was full of energy! A well of power ready to burst!

Before he knew it, he had reached the hospital wing, and he paused at the door before pushing it open.

"Oh, dear!" Madame Pomfrey glanced at him in surprise before giving him a stern look. "Students these days just can't seem to stay away from injuries…" She muttered under her breath. "Well, take a seat; I'll just get a potion."

"I'll just be waiting over here." Harry called out, shrugging and sitting on a bed.

He stared at the casualties of prank wars lying in beds around him, and turned green when he saw someone with his nose enlargened to an impossible size, the large boogers showing from his nostrils.

It didn't help that he was crying, which made his nose runny. Harry blanched and averted his eyes.

The nurse bustled back to where he was, thankfully blocking Harry's view of the horrors Hogwarts students could concoct.

"Well, here you go." Madame Pomfrey handed him a vial. "It's for blood loss."

"Why thank you, you're most gracious-" Harry spit it back out, spraying her face with the potion.

"Of all the foul tasting – " Harry gagged again, his eyes burning, "Merlin, what did you put in – " Harry tried to continue but another gag cut him off and he felt the bile rising in his throat.

He took a moment to compose himself, swallowing repeatedly to dislodge the disgusting taste in his mouth. It was the equivalent of someone punching you in the mouth and then forcing dog shit down your throat.

His attempt to keep down the contents of his stomach failed drastically and he was forced to relinquish ownership of the undigested masses.

In other words, he threw up.

He put a hand on his mouth and rushed towards a bucket lying handily beside a wall. He hurled for minutes, and every time he thought it was done, the disgusting taste hit again and he keeled over.

After several minutes, he stood up shakily and glared at the woman.

"What was that?" He demanded, voice rasp.

"A blood replenishing potion." She said, her lips in a thin line, "and I don't appreciate you acting like a child!"

"And I don't appreciate you using piss as an ingredient!" Harry scowled at her.

"Mr., Hades," she snapped at him, "sit down and let me finish!"

Harry grumbled and sat down, only now noticing that his clothes had blood all over them from his freshly bleeding knuckles.

"_Tergeo_." She murmured as she pointed her wand at his hand. The dried blood immediately vanished, and she cast an _episkey_ to heal the damage.

Harry felt a burn in his hand before it vanished altogether, and his hand was as good as new.

"I hope you'll take more care of yourself next time, Mr. Hades." Madame Pomfrey almost glared at him. "'I've always thought that you were one of the more sensible students."

"If all healing potions taste like that, you can be sure that I will." He bit out, leaving the wing resentfully.

Maybe it was time to retire to bed. He didn't deny that he was eager to finally sleep peacefully for the first time in months. But not before he could clean his robes.

* * *

Frantic knocking on the door woke Harry up from his deep sleep. Harry opened his eyes slowly and sat up in bed. He glanced at the clock he had placed on the wall and scowled.

_6:37 a.m._

Harry slowly slid out of bed and walked with deft steps towards the door. His hair was sticking out in every direction with his bangs hanging messily above his green eyes. He yanked the handle open, leaning on the door frame when he saw Flint.

"Hades! Finally!" Flint grinned in delight. "Quidditch practice, right now. You're on the team, no objections."

Harry felt his eyes twitch with annoyance. But wait a second! This could be a chance to improve his cover.

What better way to evade suspicions if they arose than to portray himself as a stupid airhead?

He would have to make his marks drop at a steady pace, looking for all the world like just one more brilliant student who wasted his potential. Or some crap like that anyways.

Harry was confident in his abilities as a top-class liar and actor.

What had he been thinking anyways? Was he that blinded by hate, or was his younger (he ignored the fact that it was only one year earlier) self just that stupid?

He had been attracting too much attention, which could lead to Dumbledore keeping an eye on him for possible future recruition.

And he didn't find the idea of joining their stupid vigilante band remotely appealing. He shuddered at the thought of seeing Dumbledore's ugly mug everyday. And those robes! Harry went a little green.

Discreetly, of course, because he was just that awesome.

He gave Flint an excited grin. "Seriously? Cool!" He brushed his bangs off his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "There's just one problem. I wasn't planning on trying out this year, so I didn't really get a broom."

"No problem, mate. Malfoy's dad got our team the newest brooms on the market." He said. "Just get your stuff. We're paying the Gryffindors a surprise visit." He smirked.

"Oh, really?" Harry asked, a wide smile on his face.

"Snap gave us a note allowing us to practice on the quidditch field, regardless of the fact that they booked it first." Flint chuckled evilly. "The perfect chance to demonstrate our new brooms!" He held back bouts of undoubtedly villainous laughter.

Harry liked trouble, and he especially loved getting out of it scotch free.

Harry chuckled maniacally as increasingly evil plans popped into his head. All strategically executed of course.

"Great!" Harry said with a manic glint in his eyes. "I'll be down in a minute."

Flint nodded and walked to another room.

That Hades kid wasn't so bad after all! Where did those ridiculous rumors about him being a serial killer in disguise come from?

Harry watched him leave smugly. Wow, was he awesome or what? His acting skills were surely unparalleled!

Harry gathered his stuff and jumped down the stairs two at a time, heading for the changing rooms. Once they were all done, Flint had marched them to the quidditch field, smirking at the angry Gryffindors there.

"What are you doing here, Flint?" Wood asked with a scowl. "We booked the field."

"We have a permission slip from Snape." Flint smirked at him.

"What! That's not fair!" Wood shouted indignantly.

"You can take it up with him if you want." Fling shrugged at him innocently.

"Fine." The Gryffindor captain scowled and stormed off to the rest of his team.

They started practicing and shot in the air at impossible speeds, looking like a blur moving in the air.

Harry's chosen position was chaser, due to his extremely tall height for his age and fit body, meant that he was the one passing quaffles, And surely a few misdirected shots at the Gryffindors couldn't be blamed on him? It was, after all, _quite_ difficult to control the quaffles!

However, no one noticed these accidents save for Damon Potter.

"Hey!" Damon shouted out angrily. "Quit trying to make us fall!"

"What? Why, never in my life have I heard such terrible accusations! You wound me!" Harry shouted out as he hit the quaffle in their direction again.

The quaffle hit Damon this time, who was too late to swerve out of the way. Damon was flying far from the rest of the Gryffindors, as he was looking for the snitch, and so he was closer to the Slytherins.

Damon was hanging to the broom by his hands, desperately trying to keep hold of it.

"Damon!" Wood shouted out in alarm.

"What is happening here?" McGonagall, who had just arrived, demanded sternly.

"He – " Wood was cut off as Harry shot in Damon's direction.

"Don't worry, Damon, I'll save you!" Harry called out dramatically while strategically posing. "Hang in there old chum, I'll be right over!"

Harry shot forward in what he made sure looked like a daring and courageous rescue, all the while sporting a determined heroic expression on his face.

In a few seconds, Harry reached and bumped into him. He made sure to hit him in the gut – accidentally, of course. When he bumped into him he reached out and pulled him into the back of his broom.

Harry directed the broom towards the floor, making it look like the downwards momentum and the extra weight was too much for it.

When they were about ten feet off the ground, he made the broom jerk upwards, as if it had finally managed to go up, but the sudden motion was too much for them, and they fell off the broom as it shot upwards.

Harry had done it on purpose, of course, and flipped them around so that Damon was on top of him in the air. If his leg had managed in any way to kick Damon in the shins, well, nobody could blame him. After all, he _was_ heroically shielding Damon from the ground!

When they hit the ground, Damon fell on top of Harry with a _thud_ and Harry felt the breath get knocked out of him. Of course, it hadn't hurt as they were only about 7 feet up, merely winded him really, but he held a hand to his stomach, plastering a pained expression on his face.

He stood and held out a hand to Damon, who was speechless with his mouth wide open.

McGonagall had already gotten to where they were, and hurried over to Harry.

"Mr. Hades! Are you okay?" She gasped.

"I'm fine, professor." Harry said before faking a pained but determined expression. "Don't worry about me; go take a look at Damon."

"Nonsense, you shielded him!" She insisted. "But that was very reckless of you. You could have been seriously injured!"

"I had to do what was right, professor." Harry said in a heroic voice. "I couldn't just let him fall!"

"It was a very brave thing to do. You managed a _splendid_ rescue!" She exclaimed with loudly. "50 points to Slytherin!"

Damon, who had been speechless throughout the conversation, finally managed to talk.

"_Splendid rescue_?" He repeated in astonishment, his mouth falling open even more. "That was _not_ a splendid rescue!"

His exclamation fell on deaf ears.

"Oh no, professor. I couldn't accept a reward for helping someone. It was my duty as a fellow student!" Harry said humbly.

"I insist, Mr. Hades! No need to be shy!" McGonagall smiled at him.

"Well, if I must…" Harry returned a modest smile.

Damon, who had sustained several painful bruises from the "rescue", spluttered in indignation.

"But are you quite sure you're – "

Harry gave a dramatic groan as he fell to one knee.

"My stomach hurts. I think it's because of when Damon fell on me." Harry let out another groan of pain.

Everybody around him looked at him sympathetically and some even shot glares at Damon.

"But I'll be fine…" He plastered the expression of a courageous hero enduring pain. "It's only a bruise. I'm sure Damon is hurt more." He waved a hand at them to check on Damon.

"Oh, Mr. Hades! Damon had you as a cushion! He's perfectly fine!" McGonagall looked at him with a hint of admiration in her eyes. "But I insist you take the rest of the day off! No objections, Mr. Hades." She raised a hand when he tried to protest. "You've certainly earned it."

"If you're sure professor… I might just go take a long rest in the dorms." He said in a tired tone. All the while looking heroic, of course.

"As for you, Mr. Potter, I expect you not to be so reckless again. What would you have done if Mr. Hades wasn't here?" She looked sternly at the heavily bruised boy. "20 points off for endangering yourself and others!"

"_But_ – but!" Damon was so speechless he couldn't get any word out at all.

"No buts, my decision is final." She said firmly.

All the Gryffindors and Slytherins present glared at him. How _dare_ he try to pin everything on the person who risked his life to save him?

The Gryffindors might not like Slytherins, but they respected bravery and heroics. _And_ Damon had lost them points!

The Slytherin were happy about the points but outraged at Damon's pathetic attempt to pin it on one of their own. Why would Harry endanger his life to save someone who he had caused to fall on purpose? Preposterous! Utter rubbish!

Damon had even started to doubt himself, shooting a hesitant and guilty look towards Harry. Maybe he was wrong. Why would he knock him off just to save him?

Harry would have smirked behind a hand, but he was too good an actor for that. That was a mistake most people made. If you acted a part, you had to stick through to the end.

Instead, he faked standing up shakily, and thanked two Slytherins as they rushed forward to help him.

"I'll take my leave then, professor." He nodded at her gratefully and turned to go.

The two Slytherins helped him to his room, wishing him a speedy recovery and leaving for their classes.

Once he was in his room alone, Harry laughed maniacally as he thought about how well his plan went!

He was brilliant!

Harry loved the spotlight just as much as he loved trouble, which was pretty damn much. He relished in the attention he got.

He knew what they were saying right now. The word was probably spreading that he had selflessly and bravely rescued Damon, hurting himself in the process!

And was it not true? Had he not in reality done those things? What a magnificent hero he was!

And at the same time, he had erased all past impressions they had of him. He could now redo his cover!

Magnificent, no, pure genius is what it was! Harry had thought that he could no longer marvel at how utterly ingenious he was, but once again he had surprised even himself!

Harry lay on the bed as he drifted off with such thoughts in mind.

He had already started on improving his cover; now all he had to do was find that parselmouth.

Oh, and he had to find Seth after this to reassure him that everything is fine.

But after he finishes sleeping.

* * *

Well, did you enjoy it? Tell me what you think! ;)

This was more of a filler than anything, but hopefully it was fun to read. It certainly was fun to write!

See ya!


	18. Closing In

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OC's and the plot.

Yes. I know I'm late. Please don't kill me. In compensation, this is probably three chapters' worth.

Hope you enjoy.

Oh, by the way, people seem to need this reminder every once in a while, so:

I WILL NEVER DISCONTINUE THIS STORY, NO MATTER HOW LONG THE UPDATE TAKES.

I would just like to tell you that no matter how much you enjoy this story, I am enjoying writing it more.

I love it.

Which is why I want to tell you, my reader, to close your eyes as you read the events, imagine yourself in the character's place, that you are in that world, with the same things happening to you.

Empathize with the character, see through its eyes, substitute the "Harry's" With "I"'s, imagine it is you in there.

Imagine you are Harry, feeling a hidden hurt every time he sees his family, wanting revenge, Seth, who can see his friend is slipping away slowly but feels helpless, Voldemort, who sees a chance to change Harry, who reminds him of his younger self, for the better, to be for Harry the person he wishes he had when he was younger.

Become one with the character and lose yourself with the story. You won't realize how fast the time passes.

That's why I have fun when writing this story, and that's why I hope you'll do that too.

So close your eyes.

And imagine.

* * *

**~Closing In~**

It was midnight, and most of the students were already in bed, eager for the next day. However, three specific people were awake that night, talking worriedly in the headmaster's office.

"But Albus, where _is_ he?" Lily Potter cried out in a distressed voice, near to tears.

"I'm afraid I don't know Lily." Dumbledore said sadly. "He should have been ten this year, so the letter must have found its way to him by now. Unless… Unless he is gone. I fear the worst. Perhaps he hadn't run away that day. Perhaps the dark lord had mistaken him for Damon."

"That's not possible!" James said desperately. "They look too different."

"The dark lord was seriously injured when he came to your house ten years ago; we can't expect his memories to be accurate. He might have mistaken Harry for Damon." Dumbledore said, tears now glistening in his eyes. "The poor child… I shudder to think of what he might have been through. The best we can hope for is that it was swift and painless."

"No, you don't understand, Albus." Lily said, openly crying now. "We were horrible to him. We were downright awful! He can't be gone; we have to make it up to him."

"The letter was our last hope. All our attempts to locate him the past few years have failed. I can only assume one thing, Lily. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid your son is gone." Dumbledore said, tears shining as they slipped down his cheeks.

"No!" Lily said weakly as she sobbed. "Harry! Harry… I'm sorry… So, so, sorry…"

James Potter, whose own eyes were swimming with tears, held his wife as the truth finally sank in.

They had missed their chance.

Their son was now gone forever.

* * *

Harry was walking to his next class when he heard a clicking noise. He turned to find the source but it was gone by then.

Huh. That's weird.

He'd been hearing these noises randomly since he arrived, but he never really took notice of it. He had always thought it was some new spell that became a quick favorite of the students or something.

It was either that or the annoying Creepy brat with his stupid camera again.

But now, due to his newfound vigilance in the face of capturing the unwanted imposter, he had made an effort to be aware at all times.

Usually, he didn't see the source because he didn't look, but the past few days; he _had_ turned, and found nothing.

He narrowed his eyes before spotting someone and relaxing.

It was Creepy, taking photos of an annoyed looking Damon Potter.

Harry chided himself for being overly cautious.

"Hurry up!" Seth called out from a way ahead in the hallway, "we're going to be late!"

"Coming!" Harry called back.

* * *

It was dueling club, and Lockhart was doing one stupid thing or another, trying and failing miserably to show off. He paled when someone suggested he duke it out with Snape as a demonstration, and hurriedly suggested two students.

Harry lost interest as he dragged Seth to one of the dummy bags in the training room and started firing spells at it, urging Seth to do the same.

After 10 minutes of shooting an unending beam of spells at the dummy, he was sweating heavily as he wiped at his forehead. He froze as he heard a familiar noise.

Harry turned around to find everybody engrossed in the ongoing match between Potter and Malfoy, and he scanned the crowd warily.

The heck?

"What's wrong?" Seth asked, looking at him weirdly.

The noise stopped though, and the crowd was too large for Harry to pinpoint where it came from.

"Just thought I heard something." Harry muttered.

Stupid Creepy.

* * *

Harry was walking around the castle, looking for any hint of the mysterious fraud, when he had seen Creepy's limp body lying on the floor.

Harry knelt beside him and put two fingers on his wrist to check for a pulse.

Low, but steady.

He held Creepy's eyelids open and waved a hand.

Unresponsive.

Petrified, then.

Harry couldn't dredge up an ounce of anything but relief at the disappearance of the clicking noise's source.

His eyes narrowed. Before he could think any further he heard quick footsteps march his way.

"Make haste! I heard the shout from here!" Dumbledore's voice rang out. "I fear we might be too late."

Harry cast an invisibility charm and moved to the shadows, watching the proceedings.

A shocked gasp reached his ears, and it was soon followed by an "Oh, my!".

"Levitate him, Minerva." Dumbledore said gravely. "I think our worst suspicions have been confirmed."

"What do you mean, Albus?" McGonagall said worriedly.

An ominous silence settled over the hall before Dumbledore answered.

"The chamber of secrets has been opened."

Well, that can't be any good, now can it?

* * *

News of the heir's fresh victim spread through the castle like wildfire. Colin Creevey was found petrified with his camera film melted, and luckily Dumbledore had been there. Soon followed news of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly headless Nick, and as winter vacation approached, most people signed up for the train ride back home for Christmas.

The chamber of secrets had been a much discussed topic by the students, and most of them could be found in the library in droves, looking for scraps of information.

The golden trio had been brewing Polyjuice potion ever since he first few attacks, and they had determined that it was Malfoy. They were currently trying to sneak into the Slytherin dorms to confirm their suspicions under the guise of Crabbe, Goyle, and Bulstrode.

"'Mione, hurry up!" Damon hissed at the bathroom door his friend was in. "We don't have much time!"

"Go without me" She squeaked in a muffled voice. "I don't think I can make it."

Ron bit his lip and looked at his watch. They were losing precious time.

"We'll come back later to tell you what we found out, kay?" He called out as he pulled Damon outside.

"Where do we go?" Damon asked in a hushed voice.

"The Slytherins always come out of the dungeons; I reckon we should start there."

They headed towards the dungeons, faking the dumb empty look their identities often had,

"You think they'll believe us if we pretend to forget where the common room is?" Damon whispered.

"Worth a try." Ron whispered back.

As it turned out they didn't need to, for as soon as they walked around for a bit, they heard a call behind them.

"Hey! Crabbe! Goyle! Where are you going?" Malfoy called out. "Don't tell me you forgot the way _again_."

"Uh, sorry." Damon said a in a slow, stupid voice.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and groaned, "Honestly, I don't know how you two even passed first year."

Ron offered a truly puzzled grin. He didn't know the answer either.

"Well, come along, I have something to show you." Malfoy sniggered. "It's quite funny actually."

They walked around until they arrived at the entrance, and with a "Pureblood!" they were in.

Harry was leaning back on one of the couches, his cheek rested against his hand with a detached look on his face, while he was staring at the flames which reflected warm light on his face. A group of giggling girls had placed themselves on nearby couches, looking at him with admiring eyes but too shy to approach.

He was trying to remember everything he had seen in the past few months to form any conclusion of some kind at the identity of the mysterious fraud. He had, for the most part, come up empty handed.

He had thought of letting his doppelganger go to class instead of him so he could stay on lookout, but Peeves, who could see through disillusionment charms, would no doubt alert the castle in seconds if he saw him.

Malfoy spotted Harry and walked over with his "goons" in tow.

"Merlin, Harry, what do you do to them?" Malfoy asked with jealousy in his tone.

Harry's eyes flickered towards him and he studied him. Maybe it was Malfoy? No, he dismissed the thought. A childish, spoiled brat like him wouldn't have the guts. He was annoying, no doubt, but not a murderer.

Anyways, he knew he attracted a lot of girls because of his exceedingly handsome looks and his supposedly "cool" attitude.

"It's my, you know, casual charm and handsome looks." Harry gave a dashing grin.

"Have you heard the rumors?" Malfoy said, rolling his eyes. "They're saying that Potter is the heir."

Potter? The mere idea was so ridiculous Harry didn't even consider it.

"Potter?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "He's not even a suspect."

Damon felt a spike of annoyance at the condescending tone. What, did he think Damon was too stupid?

Damon slapped himself mentally. It was a good thing, he reminded himself. No need for more people to think he's the heir.

"Who do you think it is?"Ron, seeing an opening, asked Malfoy.

"I've told you already, Crabbe, you know I don't!" Malfoy snapped, scowling at him. "If I did, I'd be helping him myself."

"Well, whoever it is, he got Creepy." Harry said jokingly.

"Creevey." Ron corrected automatically with anger.

"Is that so?" Harry smiled and studied him keenly.

Since when did _they_ correct people?

"Feeling a bit off, Goyle?" He said, thinking furiously.

"Uh, kind of." Damon said nervously.

"Really?" Harry felt something nagging at the back of his mind. Was it just him, or were both of them actually, dare he say it, _thinking_? If he was more paranoid, he might have just thought that they weren't –

– "Where's that Gryffindor friend of yours?" Malfoy asked distastefully.

Damon and Ron let out a sigh of relief. They could've sworn that if one more second had passed, he'd have seen right through them.

Harry, who lost his train of thoughts, glanced at Malfoy with annoyance.

"He's swinging by anytime now." Harry said. "In fact – there he is."

Seth, who had just arrived, plopped himself on the place next to Harry's, yawning loudly.

Damon and Ron exchanged a look. So this is where he was all the time?

"God, Snape is a git. He gave us a five feet long essay!" Seth groaned.

Damon stifled a laugh at the blonde's expression.

Malfoy glared at the insult.

"Watch your tongue, Gryffindork." He snapped at him. "That's my godfather."

Ron's hands clenched in anger at the way Malfoy spoke to his step-brother. However, Damon was calmer, thinking Seth could take care of himself.

Right, Harry. Remember, your cover is a dumb nice guy. Nice guy. Emphasis on nice.

"Now, now, behave." He said in a teasing voice with a steel undertone.

Harry froze.

What was that?

Was that a clicking noise? But Creepy was in the hospital wing?

"Can you hear that?" He asked suddenly.

"Hear what?" Ron asked.

Harry silenced him with a stare. It was gone. Just his imagination, after all.

"Never mind." He said, turning his gaze back to the fire.

"Are you okay?" Seth asked.

A bunch of people were going out of the common room, and Damon heard a click.

Harry's head snapped around again, looking at the crowd going out.

"There! Did anyone hear it?" Harry demanded.

"I did. It's a camera. Is Collin here somewhere?" Damon asked.

"But… Collin is in the hospital," he realized, "so what _was _that?"

Harry caught a flash, and he got to his feet running after it.

Seth, Malfoy, Damon and Ron ran after him, more out of curiosity than anything.

With the events taking place, Damon and Ron had completely forgotten that they were using Polyjuice, and no one noticed that Crabbe and Goyle were displaying signs of _intelligence_.

Harry looked around the corridor and ran after the mysterious person that had been annoying him for days. He lost sight of him, but the corridor had only split off into two ways and the second was closer.

Finally, he reached an empty corridor with a few unused classrooms.

The camera carrying person had run into one of those rooms. His eyes narrowed, and he checked the first classroom as the others arrived panting.

"So where is he?" Seth said, gasping for breath.

"I don't know." Harry exited a classroom and headed for the final door.

Harry turned the door knob, and magic shot out of it and formed green words in the air.

_Password?_

"What is that?" Ron asked

"Where did you come from?" Malfoy demanded.

"We saw you running and followed you here." Damon quickly covered for them.

Harry took a step back and pointed his wand at the door.

"_Alohomora_." A powerful burst of magic shot from the tip of his wand and overwhelmed the locking charm.

A click implied the door was unlocked, and Harry opened it quietly. The others looked over Harry's shoulder.

"…"

For ten seconds, complete silence ensued until Harry opened his mouth. Harry had assumed the weirdo he was chasing was male.

He was wrong.

"Well, that's … interesting." Harry said, eyebrow raised.

Many girls were excitedly talking with each other, giggling uncontrollably at papers in their hands. Photos, now that Harry looked closer.

There was one of Harry doing everything imaginable.

There was even one of him shirtless in the changing rooms!

Was this the clicking noise he had been hearing for two years? Cameras taking photos of him?

And to think he thought it was Creepy!

Now that he looked closer, there were other people, although the amount of Harry photos was a large portion.

Harry caught a glimpse of photos of several other students too.

A large banner on the wall said with huge block letters:

THE HOGWARTS HOTTIES APRECIATION CLUB

(Pictures are sold for 5 sickles each. For more info about bulk purchases, talk to Jenna Grayson.)

Harry grinned at the banner and turned around, wiggling his eyebrows at Seth.

Seth felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead and he slowly backed off into the hallway. Luckily, none of the girls noticed him.

Harry's eyes came upon the girl he'd been chasing. He recognized her blonde locks. She probably thought she lost whoever was after her, or that he couldn't bypass the password.

He saw the developing photos in hands as she handed them to another girl, who in turn gave her a bunch of galleons and thanked her for a job well done.

"Well, I think it's time to leave."

Harry slowly, as to not bring any attention to himself, closed the door with a soft _click_.

Harry turned around to stare at the others standing there, shock still on their faces.

"Well, I see that no one can resist my obvious charm." Harry raised both eyebrows and smiled smugly. "I'll just head to the dining hall while you guys recuperate. Seth?"

"Coming."

He will forget this in a few days, was what Seth was thinking.

He had a very selective memory, after all.

However, the smug bastard who was his friend would now never shut up about it.

* * *

"So it wasn't them after all, huh?" Damon said out loud.

"Either that, or they're pretty good actors." Ron said with a thoughtful look.

"But… We're running out of time." Damon said tensely. "Up till now, it was just luck that no one was killed. We can't waste time. We have to stop him before something bad happens."

"But how do we do that? We don't even know what the beast is." Ron pointed out.

Damon sighed.

"Let's go see how Hermione is doing." Damon said and headed for the hospital wing.

When they had gone back to the bathroom, they had been surprised by the fact that their best friend had turned into a half-cat creature. Needless to say, they convinced her to go to the infirmary and walked her there.

She had spent the rest of the holidays in the hospital wing, and now that the term started they were getting her the assigned homework so she could keep up.

After a short visit, they had headed downstairs only to hear Filch loudly complaining about something and saying he'll head to Dumbledore.

They looked at each other in curiosity and ran to the source of the noise.

The bathroom was flooded and Myrtle was wailing at the top of her lungs, even more so than usual.

Damon waded across the water until he was in front of her.

'What's wrong? What happened, Myrtle?" He asked, astonished.

"Come to throw books at me? Is it a new _game_? Let's see who can hit her through the head most, _huh_?" She wailed again.

"But you can't feel it, right?" Damon asked.

"And that makes it okay? Let's do it because she can't _feel_ it!" She mimicked while crying. "First to hit her head wins!"

"That's not what I meant." Damon said weakly. "Did you see who it was?"

"No. They just threw it and ran. It landed somewhere over there." She said miserably.

Damon waded over and grabbed the book, opening it.

"T.M. Riddle… Who's that?" Damon wondered. "And it looks pretty old."

"Hey, I know that name! It's that guy who won an award for special services to the school fifty years ago!" Ron exclaimed. "Filch had me clean his shield for an hour." He said resentfully.

"Fifty years ago? Isn't that when the chamber was opened?" Damon said, thinking hard. "Maybe he caught the culprit. We'll look through the diary later."

Damon put the book in his pocket.

* * *

February soon came, and Hermione Granger was released from the hospital.

Valentine's Day came two weeks after, and Harry had just gotten up from bed.

He headed for the bathroom and styled his hair back after he went out.

He headed to his wardrobe and wore a silk button down with a green tie and pants, folding the sleeves up to his elbow.

He looked at his reflection, smoothed a stray lock backwards and grinned at himself in the mirror.

"I look good." He said, being quite modest in his opinion.

He went down to the Great Hall, customary fake smile in place.

Once he opened the large doors, he paused at the sight that awaited him.

The hall was decorated in all shades of pink, and heart-shaped confetti was falling from the ceiling. Great, big, red bows were tied around every chair.

Harry closed his eyes slowly then opened them again. No, not a dream. He looked at the Gryffindor table. He headed for Seth and glanced at the boy sitting beside him. The boy scurried away in awe and Harry sat down in his place.

"What's going on?" He said, smiling questioningly.

"Lockhart." Seth said as an explanation, pointing in disgust at the teacher's table.

Lockhart was grinning enthusiastically and waving his hands to catch everybody's attention. All the teacher's around him were stony-faces, and Harry swore he could see their eyes twitching. Snape and McGonagall stood out, her with her cheek muscle twitching and him with his eyes glinting ominously.

"Silence, now! Quiet, I have something to announce!" Lockhart called out. "I decided to liven things up after the events of last term."

"My cupids here will be delivering your Valentines to you today!" He pointed to a bunch of grumpy looking dwarfs in cupid getup. "And I'm sure my fellow professors will be changing today's lessons to reflect Valentine's Day! You can ask Professor McGonagall about transfiguring heart and love letters! I'm sure Professor Snape would be glad to teach you how to brew a love potion! While you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows the best entrancing charms I've ever laid eyes on!"

Harry could've sworn McGonagall's hands were inching towards her wand. The way Snape glared at the students, they could be sure that the first to ask him about any such thing would be getting a fatal dose of poison. Flitwick's head fell into his hands, and Harry thought he could see him muttering ominously under his breath.

"Now then, enjoy this lovely day and don't forget to send a card to your crush!" Lockhart waved his hands cheerfully.

"I swear he isn't right in the head." Seth muttered darkly as the students started dispersing.

"Now, now, no need to feel bad about not receiving any Valentine gift." Harry said as they walked out, winking at another girl.

* * *

May Greenfield stood shyly with her friends, peeking at the school hottie.

She blushed as she stared at the undeniably handsome boy in front of her. They were heading for their next class, and dwarfs had been chasing after their particular year students because of a certain boy.

"Wait! You there, Hadrian Hades!" A dwarf called out. "Got a message for you!"

Harry stopped walking and turned around.

"Calm and relaxed, chill and cool

Your entire visage makes me drool

For my crush they call me a fool

But who can deny those green pools?"

Harry grinned at the dwarf when another one pushed through the crowd while waving for him.

"Shining emeralds with midnight black hair

When you see him you can't help but st –"

"Did Lockhart tell you to read everything out loud?" Harry asked, smiling.

"Yes sir, he did." The dwarf said.

"Must be pretty tiring." Harry said as he faked a pensive look.

"It really is, especially seeing as you got a lot of them." The dwarf said, a tired expression on his face as he thought about how many he had to read out.

Harry nodded understandingly.

"That's pretty bad." He said sympathetically before raising his eyebrows suddenly as if he got an idea. "Tell you what, you can just drop them all off at my dorm room. Lockhart will never have to know." Harry smiled at him.

"Really?" The dwarf asked in surprise.

"I wouldn't have said so if I wasn't sure." He grinned reassuringly at him.

"Well, thank you sir. I'll just go and tell my partners. Have a good day!" The dwarf left after saying gratefully.

"I still don't know how you do that." Seth told him exasperatedly.

"Practice. That and a whole lot of talent." Harry flashed a grin.

"Modest much?" Seth muttered.

The dwarfs didn't deliver anything to him after that and he could go on with his day peacefully.

Harry could see Damon some way off with ink spilled all over his things, looking flustered as a dwarf was reading a letter to him. There was a notebook on the floor, and Ginny Weasley was looking at him (Damon) in a horrified manner.

What, did she write him a valentine?

Whatever.

Harry walked away to his next class.

* * *

It was a few weeks later, and the attacks had stopped for at least four months by this time.

It was a typical day at Hogwarts, uninterrupted by the petrifactions that now seemed to have happened long ago.

They had double potions, but Snape was absent due to some urgent business which Harry knew involved his father, so they were led to the library where they were told to sit down quietly.

A surprising sight awaited anybody who cared to look.

Harry, Draco, Lore, Theo and Daphne were sitting on the same table as Seth, Damon, Ron, and Hermione. It was almost unbelievable that the famed enemies could even be in a ten mile radius of each other and not spout an insult.

It was probably due to the two boys sitting in the middle.

"Did you do Flitwick's essay yet?" Seth asked Harry.

"Well, I wasn't sure how to start writing it." Harry lied unashamedly.

"What? But you're the best in our year." Hermione said in a surprised voice.

"Yeah…" Harry sighed. "My dad gets me tutors in the summer."

"You spend your summer studying?" Damon said sympathetically as he looked at him curiously.

"Father accepts nothing but the best." Harry gave a grin that didn't reach his eyes. Inside, he was laughing maliciously at his devious acting.

Oh, me! Why do you have to be so good at _everything_?

"Well, here we were thinking you were some kind of genius." Theo joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"Hey, if I studied at school and at home, where would I relax?" Harry shrugged playfully.

"Oh, the woes of being rich." Ron muttered under his breath.

Harry glanced at everybody slyly from the corner of his eyes. The cover was working. They were underestimating him and assuming he wasn't that talented and only got high marks because of tutoring.

He really did have a stroke of genius when he decided to modify his cover, huh?

"Hey, look, they're watching me." Harry winked at a group of giggling girls on the other side of the library as he leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

"Can't resist your charm, can they?" Daphne raised an eyebrow teasingly.

"You know you love it." He wiggled an eyebrow.

"Ugh. Stop. Just stop." Lore groaned at him.

"_Thank_ you." Seth said exasperatedly.

"Jealous much?" Harry grinned as he waved at the group again. "I bet one of them will come over."

"Oh yeah?" Draco said challengingly.

"Wanna bet?" Harry returned confidently.

"Ten galleons saying they won't." Draco offered, much to the astonishment of the rest of the table.

"Twenty." Harry countered, and seeing Malfoy hesitate, he goaded, "scared you'll lose?"

"It's on." Malfoy said, squashing his hesitation.

"Sometimes, I forget how rich you guys are." Daphne rolled her eyes.

"This is inappropriate." Hermione glared at them.

"Relax, it's only a bet." Harry said with a calming grin. "If I win, you get to see Draco here lose twenty galleons."

"Well what're you waiting for?" Ron grinned excitedly. "Go on mate, you can do this!"

"Watch and learn, kids." Harry said as he sat up straight and fixed his hair slightly.

Harry looked over at them and his eyes searched out the most confident looking person amongst them, and his eyes landed on a laughing brunette.

"Who's that girl, over there?" He asked. "The brunette."

"Jessica Blaine." Lore said distastefully. "A moderately wealthy half-blood from somewhere in London."

"Hey, I don't discriminate." Harry raised his hands.

Seth rolled his eyes at his friend's antics.

"Well, here goes nothing." Harry said.

Harry stared over and caught her gaze, holding it for a few seconds before giving her a wink and an inviting grin.

"What, that's all?" Theo said skeptically.

"Wait for it." Harry said, not breaking eye contact with her. "Waaaiit for it."

Jessica grinned back at him and seemed to make up her mind after a moment.

"And she's caught."He grinned charmingly at her.

They all looked disbelievingly at him before turning to look at the approaching girl.

Blaine stood before him with her hand on a hip, smiling charmingly at him.

"I'm Jessica Blaine." She smiled at him, and he got up from his chair to grin at her.

"Hadrian Hades." His eyes twinkled as he grinned. "Pleasure."

He took her hand and planted a soft kiss on it while maintaining eye contact, smirking when she blushed.

"Well, I noticed you were looking over _and_… I was wondering if you wanted to join us in the library after class? We have a kind of study group, if you're interested."

"Study group?" He smiled at her. "_Well_, I spend a lot of time with these disgusting males. Who am I to refuse meeting some pretty girls for a change?" He said jokingly.

"Right." She blushed before regaining confidence and smiling at him. "So, seven o'clock?"

"It's a date, Jessica." He grinned.

She went back happily to her table, laughing with her friends. He could hear them shriek disbelievingly from here.

Harry sat back at the table to see everybody looking at him dumbfounded.

"Welcome to my world." Set muttered.

"I can't believe that just happened!" Damon exclaimed.

"I didn't think you could do it." Lore said, impressed.

"Well, Draco? Something you want to say? Or give, maybe." Harry grinned smugly.

"Twenty galleons it is." Draco grudgingly threw a pouch to Harry. "There goes my monthly allowance."

Harry ignored the envious stare from Ron and slipped it into his pocket.

Harry had substituted his backpack, deciding it was now too childish for him to carry, for pockets. What was easier to carry around, than pockets?

Multiple bottomless secret pockets that only he was aware of, filled with anything he needed.

Harry liked to do things with style.

"Don't be a sore loser." Harry said. "And on that note, I just remembered I have something to do."

"Want me to come along?" Seth asked.

"No need. I'll be back before dinner." Harry rose and waved as he slipped out of the library.

"We have something to do too, don't we guys?" Damon hurriedly got up, nodding to Ron and Hermione. This was a perfect chance to check once and for all if Hades was the "heir". They cast camouflage spells on themselves and followed him.

Harry was actually heading to the empty Slytherin common room, where a firecall from his father was waiting for him. He had sent a letter to his father requesting they speak about something a few days earlier, as it was much faster than speaking through letters.

Of course they had to use codes when talking, as an extra precaution.

He could finally get some answers.

He opened the door to the common room and didn't notice when the trio slipped in behind him.

He headed for the fireplace, and pushed the seat closer, blocking the view to it.

The fire cast shadows on the walls, and made the scene seem a bit ominous.

The trio hid behind a close sofa, listening keenly to what was happening.

"What do you think he's doing?" Ron whispered.

"No idea." Damon mouthed back.

"Be quiet, both of you." Hermione glared.

"Harry." A deep voice came from the fireplace.

"Father." Came the acknowledgment.

"His dad?" Damon whispered in surprise.

"I've never seen his dad." Ron replied.

"Why was it necessary to abandon the use of owls?" The voice said again.

"Wow, that's kinda harsh." Damon frowned.

Harry understood. What was so important that they had to speak in person?

"Did you hear the news? The chamber of secrets is open again." Harry said carefully. "I was just wondering if you knew anything about it."

The trio exchanged excited looks and held their breaths to listen closely.

"I see… " The voice said calculatingly. "And you have no idea who the culprit is?"

In other words, it wasn't you?

"Not at all." Harry said seriously. "Which is why I've been wondering, if you heard anything?"

Do you know who did it? Harry interlocked his hands and placed them under his chin.

Damon gave his two friends a curious glance. His father probably had many contacts, but would he know anything?

"I haven't heard any whispers." It replied. "However, I have something else to discuss with you. Do you remember what I told you about last summer? When you asked me if I wanted a certain lapis lazuli ring you had?"

The trio glanced at each other with disappointment.

Lapis… Another word for stone. The philosopher's stone.

Harry grinned slyly.

He had told harry he didn't need it because he had Horcruxes.

"Yes, I think I can remember you talking about one black diamond ring."

"Well, I might have given something like it to a close friend for safekeeping. He has a _dragon_-like determination when it comes to protecting things. Especially family."

Lucius.

"I remember him. Funny guy, a bit narcissistic though." Harry chuckled, as if laughing at an inside joke.

"Yes, and a bit too careless, I should say. It was a prized possession, a journal encrusted with a black diamond. He gave it to a blood traitor. You might remember her? Her family has a quite close relationship with your past caretakers."

Harry's eyes widened. A journal endowed with a Horcrux? And it was in the Weasley girl's hands?

"And I suppose she's unwilling to part with it?"

"You know the diamond. It draws you to it, has quite a strong pull. I'd rather say she is quite _charmed_ by it."

A spell?

"I think I can convince to part with it." Harry said smoothly.

"Quietly, if you can. I don't want word of this to get out. It's already too troublesome what with all the commotion being made about it." It said purposefully.

"Don't worry. After all, I learned how to charm people from the best." Harry said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Indeed." The voice said in an amused tone.

The golden trio, who had been listening keenly and trying to pick up any clue, had long given up on finding hints. It was obviously just a father son chat.

Ron leaned forward a bit more on the sofa in an effort to see who's face was in the fireplace, and suddenly –

– The sofa creaked loudly, and the golden trio stiffened.

However, no one came after a few seconds, and they relaxed, Damon and Hermione glaring at Ron.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over them, a black silhouette in front of the fireplace.

"Care to explain yourselves?" Harry said coldly.

Uh oh.

* * *

"So you thought I might be the heir?" Harry said in an amused voice.

"Hahaha. Well, …" Damon trailed off sheepishly, "we didn't really know who to suspect."

"We thought it was Malfoy at first." Hermione admitted with a weak grin.

"Malfoy?" Harry said with a burst of laughter before shaking his head in disgust. "A rat's got more courage. And I wouldn't be thick enough to not see it."

"Well, I suppose you're right…" Ron said thoughtfully. After all, he had almost caught them under Polyjuice, and he _did_ catch them this time.

"Well, did you find anything?" Harry said lightly, while secretly looking keenly for any trace of hesitation.

Damon and Hermione exchanged glances, trying to discreetly debate whether to tell him or not. In the end, they decided to wait a while before trusting him.

It didn't go unnoticed by Harry. Guess his cover needed a bit more time.

"Not really. We've been looking in the library for any mention of the beast, but, nothing so far." Damon said cautiously. "What about you?"

Well, it wouldn't do any harm to tell them. And if he could get them to find the notebook for him, if they hadn't already, e could just take it from them cleanly. And even if they already had it, and Harry wasn't stupid enough to ignore that as a possibility, this would get them to trust him more.

"The culprit is approximately 5 feet two or three, probably a lower year, definitely a pureblood, most likely a boy." Harry said, slipping in a lie to throw them off track a bit.

"How'd you figure all that out?" Hermione said suspiciously.

Harry thought quickly.

"Me? I didn't figure anything out." Harry laughed, as if tickled by the mere suggestion. "I heard some Ravenclaw in the library try to figure out who it was. Which, unfortunately, led to him deducing it was… well, you." Harry said to Damon, grinning slyly. "Matches your description, huh?"

"How'd he even get a description?" Damon protested.

"Well, he said something about the eye level when writing on the wall, and he mentioned that the older years were too busy with N.E. and O.W.L.s and somebody would notice if one of them was sneaking off."

"If someone wrote something on a wall, it would be at his eye level, which means that it gives us an approximate height!" Hermione explained excitedly. "And the older years are pretty busy, and they would have noticed if someone wasn't studying!"

Harry stared at her for a moment, seemingly not comprehending what she was on about. He secretly congratulated himself on his flawless acting.

"You obviously get what he was talking about, because I definitely didn't. Go on."

"Well, he said the culprit was pureblood, right? That actually is probably true, I mean, how would a muggleborn even know about the chamber's existence, let alone open it? As for it being a boy, well, they probably can't imagine a girl having the heart to petrify a cat." Hermione explained enthusiastically.

"Oh no, she's on a roll again." Ron warned jokingly.

"Ron!" She blushed furiously.

"That guy sounds pretty smart. Which Ravenclaw was it?" Damon asked curiously.

Harry glanced witheringly at him.

"There're about 250 students in every house. How the hell do you expect me to remember some loser on a library seat?" Harry smiled critically.

"Yeesh, stuck up much." Ron rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, it wasn't me!" Damon cut in, protesting.

"I know that." Harry smiled at him. "You don't have enough brains." He joked.

"Hey!" Damon defended. "You injure me!"

Wait a second. Was he joking around with Hades?

Well, he is a pretty cool guy, even if he's in Slytherin, or if he's a playboy. He was actually pretty nice. No wonder Seth liked him.

"Look at the time." Harry said in a slightly surprised tone. "I think you guys have dinner to attend to, and _I_ … have a date to prepare for." He grinned lightly.

"How did time pass that quickly?" Ron said in a surprised tone. "Well, off to dinner!"

"We'll see you later." Damon waved cheerfully.

"And thank you." Hermione added as they left.

The door closed behind them with a thud.

Harry's eyes lingered after them on the door with the shadows falling eerily across his face.

"I must commend you on your wonderful acting." His father's voice said, a smirk obvious in his tone.

"Didn't I say so before?" Harry smiled ruthlessly with a cold glint in his eyes. "I learned from the best."

"Well said." A chuckle sounded. "I expect you'll manage retrieving it?"

"I think that you," Harry slipped his wand out of his robe's inner breast pocket, "can expect a full recovery."

The fire went out.

* * *

"Well, I do have tutors at home." He said while smiling at a girl.

It was 7 o'clock, and he was in the library with the study group.

He had actually made that bet on purpose, so that he'd be included in this precise type of meeting. After all, if you wanted to hear the gossip going around, head directly to the source.

"That must be why you're so smart!" A girl laughed coyly.

"Well, I support the nature over nurture argument." He replied with a smile.

"What do you guys think about the chamber?" A girl said. "I mean, it stopped for now but will it come back? That beast they say Slytherin locked away to kill all muggleborns?"

"I'm sure there's no need to worry." Harry said reassuringly. "Have you seen anyone act strangely lately?"

"Not really." A blonde answered. "But did you guys see Ginny?"

"Ginny?" Harry's attention was grabbed. "What's the matter with her?"

The girl looked pleased to receive his attention, and answered enthusiastically.

"She's been taking this diary around with her everywhere, but she's lost it for a while now. Weird thing is, she doesn't seem to be upset about it." The girl whispered in a conspiratorial tone. "I wonder what happened to it."

"Does anyone know where it is?" He asked casually.

"Not really. Someone said they heard Myrtle wine about a book. Who knows?" She shrugged suggestively.

"Enough about that baby." Jessica interrupted. "We want to hear more about you."

"Well, you need only ask." Harry smiled, eyes twinkling. "In fact, I'm hosting a party this summer. Who'd like an invitation?"

It was the least he could do in exchange for the information they'd given him.

Ginny Weasley had lost possession of the diary. Now he'd only need to ask Myrtle where it was. He was almost certain it was with Damon Potter, but it didn't hurt to check.

After all, Harry never did things in a half-assed way. No strings could be left untied. Nothing should be left to chance.

Now that he thought about it, that was very Slytherin of him, he smirked inwardly as he shook his head.

"Well, ladies, I've got to retire." He said after a few minutes. "See you later."

Harry walked towards the bathroom Myrtle was haunting, feeling his heart rate pick up in excitement.

He was close.

Very close.

Harry loved the rush of adrenaline. It made him feel alive.

* * *

Sorry again for being so late. I'm currently not studying for my exams, which I really should be getting back to.

Exams have just started, so expect more updates!

Yes, I know, weird, but I get more inspiration when I actually have something urgent to do. It's a form of procrastination .

Hahahaha.

Well, see ya laaaateeerrr.


	19. Outsiders

Disclaimer: Only own the plot and OCs.

* * *

**_~Outsiders~_**

Adrenaline rush, my butt. That quickly dwindled when he fully realized where he was heading.

It dawned on him that he was standing in front of a bathroom.

A _girl's_ bathroom.

Harry looked to both sides, his face burning.

He couldn't shake off the feeling that he was doing something bad no matter what he did.

As it was, unluckily for Harry, when he had sealed some of his emotions off, it had been primarily pain and rage, so it had no effect on his current embarrasment.

He really hoped no one saw this. He ignored the blush prickling at his face.

He sighed again before checking just one more time.

Why would a ghost haunt a bathroom of all places? He thought sullenly.

Think about it this way. What was more important, not entering a girls' bathroom or finding the Horcrux?

He took a firm step towards the door but his face burned and he retreated, clearing his throat again. But this was wrong!

Wrong? He was the dark heir. Who cared about wrong?

His feet took him one step closer before again doubling back, the deep blush on his face showing his embarrassment.

What if someone saw him?

A sound to his right startled him and he turned his head slowly in horror.

Two dreamy grey eyes stared back at him. Loony Lovegood was staring at him pensively as she tried to figure out what he was doing. He relaxed, regaining his composure. No one would believe her anyways.

"You're in front of the girls' bathroom." She said in an airy voice with the kind of honesty that usually makes people uncomfortable.

He resisted the urge to sneer at her and drawl a sarcastic '_really_?'.

Wait a second.

This was perfect!

Harry's expression turned eager as he stepped extremely close to her, shoving his face in front of hers.

"..."

"Can I ask you a favor?"

* * *

"Myrtle says someone threw the book at her." She said in an airy voice. "It's not there anymore though. Someone took it."

"Oh... Thanks anyways." He nodded at her.

"It's fine." She looked at him sympathetically with dreamy eyes. "It happens to me too. It's the nargles. They like to steal things."

Nargles? Harry's brows shot up. What utter nonsense.

"Really?" He said as he stared at her disdainfully. "Nargles?"

Not people? Her ability to delude herself was astounding.

He could see that her quirky habits and dreamy and distracted personality probably led to her being bullied.

He concentrated on detachment.

Why didn't she stand up for herself? Harry could feel little but disdain for her.

Whatever. Pathetic doormats who didn't even try to change the way things were had no one to blame but themselves. He resisted the urge to sneer at her.

"Yes." She said sadly.

It wasn't any of his business, but for some reason, feelings of hostility and disdain rose when he looked at her.

She represented a state that Harry particularly hated.

She represented powerlessness.

He stared at her coldly, loathing in his eyes, his true emotions slipping for a moment.

But she wasn't any of his concern. She was just another stupid student.

"Well, I'd better get going." He nodded at her, trying to maintain a polite tone, although she must have been more observant than he gave her credit for because she seemed the tiniest bit hurt.

"Oh..."

He left the corridor, shoving her out of his mind.

This solidified Harry's suspicion that it was currently with Damon. After all, who else would have this much incentive to look for the heir so determinedly?

He did seem a bit suspicious when Harry had caught him and his moronic two friends trying to play heroes by spying on him. Besides, his guts were telling him Damon had it. That meant his next destination was the Gryffindor dorms.

Harry pushed her out of his mind as he started to walk in the direction of the Gryffindor dorms. He had already wasted enough time.

He needed to find the Horcrux as quickly as possible, so he should go and get it now. He checked his watch, and he saw that there was still some time until dinner finished.

He finally arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady a few minutes later.

"Password." He heard a voice say. He raised his head to look at her, and her eyes widened in surprise.

For some reason, she had almost mixed him up for Damon Potter. Now that she looked closer though, his hair was black rather than dark red, and his eyes green instead of hazel. The hair was slightly neater, and he was also taller. Although the facial features were eerily similar, this boy's face was more pleasing to the eyes, his face almost devilish in its handsomeness.

So how did she get confused?

Huh, the world was a very weird place.

"I don't think I've ever seen you before." She looked at him curiously with a glint of admiration in her eyes. "I'd remember your face if I'd seen it before."

Harry stared at her calculatingly,his unnerving cold green eyes disappearing in a fraction of a second, replaced by a polite, charming smile.

"I'm just looking for my friend." He said while smiling the sweet, endearing smile that often tricked people into falling into whatever plot he had concocted. "Wattlebird." He said the password.

"Go right in, dear." She smiled at him.

He walked up the stairs and headed for the dorms. He found the door with Damon's name on it and kicked the door open.

The room, as typical of a normal boy, was extremely disorganized. In other words, as messy as hell. Harry kicked off underwear that fell on his shoes.

He ruffled through the drawers, looked under the bed, in the trunk, but he couldn't find a single trace of the diary! After a few more minutes of searching he gave up.

He kicked Damon's trunk in vicious resentment and felt satisfaction as it spilled its contents over the floor.

What had happened? Where was it?

Was he too hasty? Was it not with Damon Potter after all?

But then where could it be?

If it wasn't with Ginny Weasley, or with Damon Potter, where could it be?

Annoyance and frustration turned to anger and confusion as he realized that he was once again back to square one. He had no idea where the Horcrux was.

He was so _sure_ it was with Damon Potter. Were his instincts getting rusty? They had never failed him before.

He was starting to become unsure. No. It was silly to be like this because of one mistake.

_But what if next time, the consequences are much greater?_ A voice whispered in his head. Harry ignored it.

He slammed the door behind him as he walked out angrily. The realization that he was not always right bruised his ego, and at the same time, the thought that he had to start looking for the Horcrux from scratch infuriated him.

No.

He wasn't wrong. He was sure he wasn't.

Damon Potter had acted quite suspiciously when Harry had asked him if he found anything. He had, at least at thapoint not in time, possessed the notebook.

And now it was gone. How could that be explained?

Where could it be?

He forced himself to calm down, clearing his head. He had to be level.

He couldn't do anything about it now. It could be anywhere in the castle.

The only consolation he had was that nobody could figure out the diary was a Horcrux as knowledge of such things was rare even among the most scholarly, and even if they suspected something was wrong with it, they couldn't destroy it by normal means. Only someone like Dumbledore met both criteria, and hopefully, Dumbledore would never find out it was here in the first place.

He sighed in frustration as he ran his hand through his hair.

For the first time, Harry found himself at a loss thinking about what to do.

Agh, this was such a drag, he grumbled.

* * *

Damon and Ron were sitting on a couch in a corner of the Gryffindor common room. It was still early in the morning, and Damon had a match against Hufflepuff later on in the day.

"Who do you think could have taken it?" Damon whispered in a hushed voice.

A few nights ago, Damon had come in to find his room turned upside down, and he noticed that Tom Riddle's diary had gone missing.

"No idea, mate, but it'd have been a Gryffindor." Ron said in an equally low voice. ''How else would they know the password?"

"It's strange, though. Who would want a diary so bad?" Puzzlement was evident in his voice.

They had already shared the news with Hermione, but she had run to the library saying that she finally figured something out.

"Hey, it's almost eleven; you should get going if you don't want to miss your match." Ron urged him as he hopped off the couch.

"Well, I guess you're right." Damon agreed as he picked himself up.

Only when they reached the pitch had it become apparent that something very, very terrible had happened. McGonagall had raced across the pitch to inform them the match was cancelled.

Damon couldn't suppress the knot of dread in his stomach as McGonagall asked him and Ron, along with Seth, to follow her.

"There has been another attack…" The professor explained sadly as she led them into the hospital wing.

Damon's heart did a somersault as he looked at the figure lying on the bed.

"Hermione!" Ron's stunned voice rung throughout the wing.

"I can't believe it." Damon whispered in shock.

Seth stared at the figure, blood draining out of his face.

"I'm sorry." She said with a sad voice. "I know this is hard for you."

After a few moment passed, McGonagall sighed and put a hand over their shoulders.

"I'll escort you back to the common room. I have to read out the new rules to everybody." Her usually stern face and voice were now soft.

* * *

Harry had been walking through the hallways.

It was already night; it would be time for curfew soon. As Harry was walking back to the dorms, he saw people pouring out of the great hall, walking in groups. He leaned on a wall that was unlit by the candles, observing the crowd.

After gazing at them, his thoughts darkened slightly and he felt something that left a bitter taste in his mouth.

All the groups looked tight-knit, as if they shared all their secrets and had known each other for years. His eyes ran over the groups, looking for Seth. However, he was talking with Damon and Ron, and all three of them had a glum expression on their faces.

While he could indeed use some company, he would definitely not show his down self to Damon Potter, so for now at least, he would have to leave Seth alone.

Harry took his eyes away and coldly scanned the crowd, noting all the individuals he'd met during his days at Hogwarts, all in different groups, looking comfortable. Then, looking at the crowd as a whole, he could notice the camaraderie that existed between them subconsciously.

They were still children. They had that carefree innocence about them. He glanced after them, a hint of wistfulness and longing in his frozen green eyes. A feeling sprouted inside him.

Jealousy.

That only made him angrier, and he scowled as he kicked the ground absentmindedly.

They lived in a totally different world. Soon, they had all left, and he was left alone in the hallway.

He stared at the candle on the opposite wall. The flame on it flickered, casting shadows around it. Light and darkness…

Wasn't it funny?

Wherever there is light, there is darkness.

Darkness is born out of light's existence. And when the light shines brightest, the darkness is at its blackest.

Just like him.

He raised his hands in front of his face and gazed at it, covered in shadows by the candle flickering on the opposite wall. He stared at the moving shadows, mesmerized by their movements.

Light…

It is so bright it burns everything into your eyes so that you can't forget. It illuminates everything you want to hide, stripping away all your masks and exposing your weakness. Showing you everything that is happening in clear, painful details, and carving it into your memory.

He hated it.

The candle in front of him exploded, and his part of the hallway was engulfed in darkness.

For a split second, a shadow of the unbalanced part of him he'd sealed away was back, before disappearing again altogether.

He stared at the corridor the students had used a minute ago, unsure whether to follow or not. Was he far too gone to be considered one of them?

Thoughts chased around in his head and he realized he really shouldn't be left to his own devices right then.

He could go to Seth, but Harry doubted it would help much. Although Harry cherished his friend greatly, he did not understand. He'd want to, but he couldn't.

Ugh, this was so cumbersome. Harry was lazy, this amount of thinking was way too much for him.

Harry paused for a moment, and changed his destination for the astronomy tower to think there. He let detachment and cold clarity fill his mind.

What would be his next step?

He needed to get the Horcrux as soon as possible, before anybody could destroy it. He had no choice but to wait for it to strike again.

He also still had no idea how he was going to get revenge on the Potters. He still hadn't even decided what he was going to do to them. Killing them was definitely not enough.

He had never killed anybody, he noted as he stared at his hands, which he knew was more than capable of doing so. But physical and magical ability weren't the same as the actual ability to kill someone.

Would he be able to do it? He would have to, eventually. A war was coming.

But he didn't want to, he realized. He didn't want to kill.

He wanted to retain a semblance of the innocence he once had, even if it was only a sliver. He was reluctant to lose even that because of the Potters.

He let his hands fall away.

The Ravenclaw tower was still a few minutes away.

The only person he could talk to who could understand was ironically unavailable. Voldemort was thousands of miles away.

Harry's head snapped up when he suddenly heard several sniggers and laughs.

Frowning, he made his way to the source and found a few students surrounding a familiar blonde head. Luna Lovegood was sprawled on the floor, her eyes missing the usual dreamy quality.

Harry was obviously witnessing bullying. He stared at the blonde's form, studying the expression on her face. Sadness.

His eyes slowly strayed to the other side, comparing it to the faces of the bullies, which were instead filled with vicious, uncaring, delight and glee, as if they were having the time of their life.

And suddenly, anger boiled in his mind. How could someone feel such enjoyment when causing others pain? Was it really that fun, seeing someone's tears?

Was that how the Potters had looked like when they knew the pain they were causing him?

Did they find that much enjoyment out of his predicament?

Rage blinded him for a moment, and his vision went red.

He held himself back, correcting the lapse in control. It was barely contained, like a string that was being pulled to breaking point.

Harry focused on detachment, clarity and calmness. He turned around to ignore the scene, but something stayed his feet.

It felt like he was making a detrimental decision. Like something of vital importance was being decided.

Should he leave, or should he help her?

Harry wrestled with the righteous anger burning in him. He had to be calm. He had to be calculating. Helping her would not benefit him, so he shouldn't help her.

Although his brain was saying that, it was a matter of the heart. And he felt like he shouldn't leave her. She reminded him of him, when he was waiting for someone who would never come.

Had someone seen him in this situation when he was little?

Had they ignored him like he ignored her?

How could he be angry at nobody helping when he himself did not help?

But the rational side won, and his resolve hardened.

However, one last question posed itself to him?

_What makes you different from the Potters now_?

_You're the same. _

It was as if the younger Harry was speaking to him.

Hadn't he promised to never forget him? After all, he was doing everything for that Harry.

That young, innocent, naive Harry. A tiny body curled up in the corner of a dark forgotten room.

Harry smiled bitterly as his feet stopped.

He had cut a part of his soul, trained himself to be cold, built a wall between himself and others, yet he still couldn't stop this.

Then, like he couldn't stop himself from helping Seth many years ago, he turned back around.

Pheraps he wasn't as far gone as he thought.

"Good evening." He said, smiling when they turned around in shock. "Confundo."

The confundus charm hit its targets, and confusion immediately appeared on their faces.

"Colloshoo."

The charm caused their feet to stick to the ground with something not unlike glue.

"Are you okay?" He said as he extended a hand towards Luna.

After she had stood up, she looked at him, an airy look back in her eyes.

"That was very nice of you." She finally said, a dreamy smile on her lips. "I'm fine."

"Anytime." Harry smiled at her. "You should go to sleep, it's a bit late for a lady to be up."

She nodded , but held something out to him.

"It's a gift." She said as she unveiled a ... Butterbeer cork necklace?

"Err, thanks? I guess..." He trailed off. His suspicions were confirmed. She was crazy.

"They keep the Nargles away." She nodded before turning to go.

Harry stared at the thing in his hands for a few moment before laughter bubbled up in his throat.

He forgot the Horcrux. He forgot the Potters. He forgot the war. He forgot everything for a second.

He just laughed. A carefree, innocent sound.

When was the last time he had done that?

Meanwhile, the offenders had slowly emerged from under the confundus charm's effect, staring at Harry weirdly.

Harry noticed them and sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Why was he troubling himself?

He was taking everything way too seriously.

He lost the Horcrux?

He'll just have to find it.

The Potters?

He'd deal with it when the time comes.

He was thinking too much, and if he let it go on, it'd affect his life.

So he should just focus on the small things.

Like this.

He threw the pile of negative emotions into the box at the back of his mind.

"Thinking about everything at once is a bit too bothersome, you know?" He thought out loud while stretching his hands. "Takes too much energy."

"Energy that I'd much rather spend doing this." He smirked as he twirled his wand, an ominous promise in his eyes.

An hour later, four heavily hexed students staggered into the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey sighed at the variety of colorful hexes used this time.

It was the whole package. Beaver teeth, singing, dancing, speaking in rhymes, bat bogeys, and much, much more.

She grumbled as she became

This would be a real piece of work.

* * *

Harry stretched his body while whistling as he walked through the hallways.

That had felt great. He hadn't enjoyed himself like that in a considerable while.

He yawned, blinking his eyes blearily.

He should some some sleep. He would be rising early tomorrow.

He might have an idea for where to start with the Horcrux hunt.


End file.
